An Odd Turn
by Orion Smith
Summary: Ever hear of the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times"? Yeah, well, it sucks. Granted, my day to day life wasn't anything adventure filled, but there's a difference between regular daily life and suddenly being surrounded by black beasts attempting to eat me! SI, M for violence, cursing, alcohol in later chapters. First go at writing a fanfiction.
1. Chapter 1

**Some Days Aren't Worth Getting Out of Bed**

I sighed, rolling back from my desktop in my chair, cracking my neck to relieve some of the stiffness. I had been working on a program for an assignment from class all afternoon… and with a glance at the clock displaying the time to be 2200, I suppose evening as well. The only breaks I took were to answer to the call of nature and to eat with my roommates before retreating back to my room to work. But I finally finished it, and now I could get some sleep, and not have to worry about it despite being due two days from now aside from some final checks on it. I had a test tomorrow in calculus, and I wasn't entirely looking forward to it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bad at calculus, I'm just not excelling in it. It's taking a bit for the lessons to sink in is all. I do enjoy the class, and the teacher is nice, the material itself is just… difficult at times.

Deftly manipulating the mouse to save all of my hard work, I took a glance out the window. While I did live in an apartment complex, funnily enough there was a lack of lights blocking my view of the stars and moon. Half-full, the moon was a touch captivating, it always had been. Just one of those things of nature that we all appreciate in some form or another. After saving the file, I closed it and everything else I had up, disconnecting my headphones and pocketing them without a second thought. A bad habit of mine is to simply put things in my pocket when I was done with them without realizing. Another bad habit was that if it was late enough and myself tired enough I would simply go to bed in whatever I was wearing. Today being a pair of jeans, a solid color reversible brown/black belt, a black T-shirt with various intricate designs of yellow and blue across it, and my tennis shoes. Yes my tennis shoes: I'm tired, and I generally sleep with my feet hanging off the edge anyway, so deal with it.

Powering off the computer, I trudged over to my bed, clambering in with a yawn. Making a mental note to pick up something caffeinated in the morning, hoping I'd remember it (probably not), I slipped off into sleep.

…

…

…

.. _the hell?_

Now, I'm not a deep sleeper. It's actually fairly easy to wake me up, so long as you don't rely on solely sound. I can sleep, noise-wise, through anything. If I feel something though, I'll wake right up. It's why my alarm on my phone is vibrate as well as a cheery little jingle that I honestly need to switch because it's annoying. Maybe that's why I haven't adjusted it? Regardless, I'm highly sensitive to touch, especially in my sleep, and I knew that what I was feeling was wrong. It felt like wind was rushing past me… except 1. I didn't leave my window open last night, and 2. The wind felt wrong blowing past me. Cracking open my eyes, I found myself staring at a rapidly approaching blur of black spots on a background of white… oh. Trees and snow on the ground. Which means I'm falling… at a decent clip… and the only thing to slow me down are the branches of the trees….

"… Oh this is so going to-"

My vocal complaint was cut off as I curled into a ball and impacted with the first of the many branches, snapping almost instantly from my velocity that I had achieved falling. Luckily, the spot I had been falling towards was filled with several branches from four trees around the area, and I apparently hadn't fallen from that high, as I was slowing with each branch, enough that when I hit the ground with several branches around me, though bruised, nothing was broken. Still…

"OOOOOWWW. Whyyy…"

It… kind of hurt.

Staggering to my feet, brushing some snow off as I shivered, I knew almost instantly that this wasn't a dream. For one thing… that hurt! And my mind would have no way to theorize how that would hurt if it was a dream, because nothing even remotely similar has ever happened before! For another, I could feel the chill, which was bad, because I am quite obviously NOT dressed for this environment. Finally, I was… vaguely familiar with this area? Blinking as I looked around my landing zone, all I saw were a bunch of leafless trees and snow. A decent amount of snow that apparently helped cushion the last of the force from my fall, what hadn't already bled off from the many branches I impacted with. Grimacing, I rolled my shoulders and carefully stretched my body, noting that while sore, nothing would impede my movement. I got incredibly lucky, despite my apparently unlucky and… odd circumstances. I can still move, which means I have a shot of getting the hell out of wherever I ended up.

Another blink, and then I began searching my pockets, seeing what all I had with me, as apparently something had just randomly stolen me from my body and dropped me from a decent height in an unknown area. Wallet, possibly useful… cell phone, not gonna be useful until I figure out where the hell I am and if I can even get service anywhere nearby… headphones, obviously not useful… well there's a stroke of luck. I barely remember, but in an attempt to relax and think last… I'm just gonna call it last night, I had been sharpening my hunting knife gifted to me from my grandfather, a family heirloom of sorts. I maintained its condition, and I guess instead of putting it back in its drawer like I normally do, I just shoved it into my pockets like I did everything else. So, at the very least, I have a knife, and sharpener for said knife. Picking up a nearby branch as long as my arm, I figured I could at least sharpen the tip into something similar to a javelin. Makeshift and crude, but something about my surroundings made me uneasy. I shouldn't recognize it, but there was this familiarity tickling the back of my skull…

Well, as I didn't get much of a look when I was busy falling and I have no idea where I am, suppose I should just pick a direction. Picking up a smaller branch about the half the size of my forearm that had only one end broken, I tossed it into the air as hard as I could with as much of a spin as I could. When it fell, the broken end pointed away from me, towards my right. Whelp, that's where I'm going. Taking out my knife and flicking it open, I began trudging through the snow in that direction, praying that my apparently bipolar luck would be on my side as I began to sharpen the tip of my branch.

On the bright side, the monotony of the forest had faded. The only sounds were my breathing, the crunch of the snow as I walked, and until I had finished, the sound of my blade on wood as I carefully sliced pieces off of it. With one last carve, I folded my knife and pocketed it, switching my newfound stabby stick to my right hand. Yes stabby stick, I am terrible at naming things and I refuse to call something as ghetto makeshift as this a javelin, even inside my head. So now I could pay attention to my hearing, as anything aside from my breathing and walking would signify something, or someone, else out here. And it seems like the trees are thinning… a clearing perhaps? Maybe my luck will hold…

Advancing into the clearing cautiously, my stick in front of me, I found nothing really out of the ordinary aside from the lack of trees. Just some black rocks… that were beginning to move. That can't possibly be good… and when I saw specks of red and patches of white on the "boulders" that more than likely signified teeth and eyes, I only had thing to say.

"Well… fuck my life."

They had already seen me, and while I'm in above average shape for an 18 year old young man at 5'10" and weighing 190 lbs., they looked like wolves. Pitch black with some scary ass eyes and big as hell, but still wolves. Horses don't outrun wolves, the damn chance I have? Still, I began to back away slowly anyway, figuring I could probably climb a tree and delay the impending death sentence. This was my plan, to get away and stab any that got too high with trying to reach me… until a couple got on their hind legs, sending alarm bells through my head. Because, you know, last I checked, **wolves aren't bipedal creatures.** Grimacing, I raised my stabby stick in an approximation of a guard, knowing that I was probably going to die here, but damned if I make it easy. With a growl, the first of the wolf-like creatures rushed towards me as the others followed closely behind all across the clearing. I began backpedaling rapidly, my eyes flicking between each opponent, praying I'd run into… and the feeling of something solid behind me settled my nerves a touch, as now at least I wouldn't be hit from behind. As they approached, I realized that these creatures were as big as I am, which made my life that much harder. Apparently bipolar luck decides to swing against me.

The first of the onrushing pack closed in before leaping at me. My response was to dodge-roll away, as I suddenly realized that getting mashed against the tree would only end badly because it's bigger than me. Coming to my feet rapidly, I found the werewolf like beast had impacted against the tree headfirst, probably not figuring I'd move somehow? I'm not going to bother trying to understand something that's trying to kill me with the last few minutes of life I happen to have. Lunging forward, I drove my stick pointy end first into what I figured was the neck, sinking it about a quarter of the way in. Disconcertingly, I didn't draw any blood, but as a long mournful howl escaped its throat as it slumped, I'm going to just not care because it seems to die like any other beast of the world, and right now I'd take it. Pulling my stick free, noting that it didn't suffer any wear and whatever the hell it had on it, some sort of black stuff, was fading away from it, I turned to meet the rest of the horde.

Sidestepping another beast, I jammed my stick into its black hide. This was stupid of me, as it broke in half, the beast tumbling to the ground. While it was another kill, I lost my only weapon of any range. My hand darted into my pocket before pulling my knife and unfolding it. Better than nothing, and I refuse to just lay down and die. If there's any hope for me to survive, I'll take it. At this point there were now two beasts at once coming at me as the others began to circle the area, and as I side-stepped one, the other was met with my knife in its left eye for its trouble as I essentially half-stepped to the side, its slouch and bowed head providing me a relatively easier target. Whipping free my knife as the feral creature stumbled from the unexpected loss of sight in one eye, I met another beast that I avoided by diving between its legs. Clambering to my feet, I let out a hiss of pain as I threw myself to the side and managed to reduce an incoming claw to some decent scratches on my left torso instead of just outright doing some nasty damage to me. In turn, I lunged at the next nearest beast instead of letting it do so to me, sinking my knife up to the hilt in its neck. Whipping it free, I let out a yell of pain as I felt a pair of jaws clamp around my right ankle. Out of reflex alone, my hand darted out and slashed across the sucker punching beasts eyes, causing it to let out a yelp of pain and release my ankle, which brought me to one knee as the pain and damage rendered that leg unable to support a standing position anymore.

Damn, that mobility was all I had going for me. At this point I'll be dead in seconds. Still, I readied my knife, prepared to take as many as I could from the remaining 20 of the horde before a gunshot rung out, taking off one they're heads. I blinked in surprise as the body began to fade, more gunshots ringing out and taking out two more of the pack as I realized that I was being rescued. In moments a red blur was in the clearing, gunshots ringing as the figure danced among the growling beasts and easily tearing them apart. I felt my body begin to relax, the danger fading as the beasts were torn apart. Which made me wince and clasp my ankle, as without the benefit of adrenaline, that shit fucking hurt! Finally, the last of the beasts fell to the ground, bisected cleanly in half, and I got my first good luck at my savior. She was a young girl, wearing an ensemble of black and red with a red cloak. In her hands rested a monstrous mechanical looking scythe. Black hair, silver eye-

_Oh no fucking way. Some god up there is fucking with my life at my expense, because this is bullshit. Who the hell ends up in an anime? Because there's only one person who'd wield something like that._

In front of my eyes was the young figure of Ruby Rose, the "red" member and leader, or judging by all the facts in front of me soon to be leader, of Team RWBY. As I processed this, she approached me and bent down slightly to look me in the eye.

"You okay Mister? That was a lot of Beowolves, and it looks like they got you a few times!"

I blinked, slowly coming to terms with my situation, and blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

"Ah…. I don't suppose you happen to have a first aid kit in that outfit would you? Cause this actually kinda hurts. A lot."

_You know those days where you feel like it's not worth getting out of bed? I would call it one of those days, except I didn't even wake up in my bed!_

**Author's Note: So, those of you who actually read this, I appreciate you giving it a shot. This idea has been bugging me for days, and I decided the best way to get it out would be to write it up and submit it. Yes it's a self-insert with an OC loosely based upon myself, but a few notes.**

**On being a Hunter: Nope. Nadda. Ain't gonna happen. As stated above, I/my OC am 18, one year beyond the initial enrollment age of Beacon. Plus, I'm in pretty good shape, but Hunters/Huntresses are in near superhuman shape, and have been training or hunting for the majority of their lives. I wouldn't stand a chance.**

**Aura: Yes I will have access to Aura and even a Semblance. Before you people bitch at me, it is technically the manifestation of the human(oid) soul. It just needs to be unlocked. Different world, different rules, and I plan to survive the nasty incidents. I will be doing my best to keep the Semblance to something not completely overpowered. Don't like it, don't read.**

**Pairings: No idea. My initial idea was to court the Malachite twins, but we'll see. No yaoi, as I'm straight, and I believe the other guys are straight from their actions throughout the series. Maybe yuri, and that's a maybe, because there's plenty of guys I can pair the girls with. I'm not romancing Nora, because I can see her killing me from exhaustion, and because I see her more with her childhood friend, No romancing Pyrrha, as she's hopelessly infatuated with blond and scraggly, and I'm not changing that. Deal with it. All the others are open season, and we'll see where it goes. I will try my hardest to prevent a harem, however, mainly as I see it as unrealistic. All of these women are forceful in personality and highly competitive, I don't see them sharing too well.**

**Timeline wise, purely for my sanity I'm operating under the assumption that the "Red" Trailer is an incident one year before the start of the series. Why you may ask? So I can actually get some backstory in to this instead of "Self-Insert ends up in RWBY. Goes directly into combat school with no preparation and expects to be a badass with no prior training." Hell no. As already stated, I'm not going to be a Hunter. So, I need to do something a little different, and that will take a decent amount of time.**

**Hmm…. That should cover the general questions. Please review, as this is my first attempt at writing, and I would like any constructive criticism. Also feel free to toss out ideas, as I may need more as time goes on. No guarantees I'll use them, but if I do I will credit you in future Author's Notes. And ask questions! Those spur thought, and I'm happy to answer. I'll generally split my Notes in two from here on, Q&amp;A before the text, and my notes and thoughts after.**

**Ah… one more thing. As at least 90% of you reading this already know, the creator of this wonderful world Monty Oum passed away Feb. 2 2015. It is quite sad to hear about the early passing of such a brilliant man, and I will admit that part of why I am writing this is in homage to him and his creativity. RIP Mr. Oum, and my best wishes to his family, friends, and anyone who personally knew him.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Reader Response Corner(RRC): So, I'm going to answer review comments here, to the best of my ability, and leave an actual Author's Note at the bottom. To keep separate thoughts provoked by you guys and my own personal thoughts. I'll also only respond to reviews at the time of my writing, so if someone posts a review and I don't mention it this chapter, it'll probably be because I already uploaded, fanfiction just hasn't put it up yet.**

**Guests have suggested pairings! Thoughts on that:**

**BlakexMe: A possibility, as I do enjoy reading, and I have a decent chance of getting along with her personality wise. Probably not though, as Blake has two separate romance options from guys in the form of Adam and Sun, so friends probable, romance not so much.**

**NeoxMe: That could be interesting… A guy from a parallel world, a split in the multiverse, getting along with a split person per se? That promises to be fun, if I can figure out how to work Neo into here so far ahead of the canon plot. We'll see.**

**VelvetxMe: I'm hesitant here, mainly because I really don't know much about her. If I did, I'd have to draw her personality from essentially fan ideas, and I'm kinda iffy about doing that sort of thing. Still, I'll leave the possibility up there.**

**Getting Your Bearings**

Ruby did have a first aid kit, thankfully, and was quick to begin bandaging my ankle first. I hissed as she applied some anti-septic beforehand, and restrained myself from any further noise as she carefully wrapped it with cloth. When she finished, I spoke up.

"Thanks. I owe you… quite a lot come to think of it."

She just smiled at me before looking at my side. "No worries! I'm training to become a Huntress! Saving people is just what I do. My name's Ruby! What's yours?"

Opening my mouth to tell her, I paused. Name? … oh bullshit, I did not land on my head. I shouldn't have any memory loss! Yes my memory is sometimes bad, but nowhere NEAR this bad. I racked my brains… OK, I remember a bunch of false names I used in games… all sorts of random trivial information… but not my real name? Okay… that would be bad. In the meantime though…

"Orion. Just a guy who got a little lost and a little in over his head. Or, I suppose a lot in this case…"

She giggled at this, before standing. "Well, looks like the ones you took on your side aren't bad enough to actually need any bandages. Do you need a hand getting back?"

"That… would be awesome. Please."

She helped me up, and allowed me to place one arm over her shoulder. I blinked; when had she collapsed that giant weapon of hers? I suppose it doesn't matter; from her speed, I can guess that if anything hostile appears, she'd be able to move fast enough to get it out and deal with the threat, which I'm cool with. Yes I'm relying on a young teenage girl, but it's a young teenage girl with super speed and a giant scythe-sniper rifle hybrid who just fucking massacred a bunch of Beowolves, I feel no shame in that. Speaking of… information time! Just because I know of ONE variation of the RWBY cast… and several more because I will shamelessly admit I read fanfiction… who knows what this set is like? Or this world? On the bright side, it doesn't appear to be one of the Bloody Rose variants… dear god that would suck massively. So much. I shuddered at the thought, which earned me a worried look from the Rose currently carrying me.

"Are you alright?"

Oh right she's there… quick, half-truth! "I'm ok. Just a bit cold. Actually a lot cold. And adrenaline let down sucks so much."

"Yeah, I was actually wondering about why you're not really dressed properly for this…"

_So am I Ruby… whichever nonspecific deity pulled this shit on me, when I die, I will find you, and I will kick you so hard in the groin that you're bastard children will feel it! Now to avoid her question…_

"I've wandered out in less clothes in this type of weather. What'd you call those things? Beowolves?"

She just blinked at me. "You do know what Beowolves are right? Creatures of Grimm, have no soul, want to wipe out all of humanity? Ringing any bells?"

Several, but I can't tell her that. "Is it a bad sign that it's not? … From the look on your face I'd say so. So you're training to hunt these things? Is that why you have that really complex scythe?"

As everyone knows, there are two quick ways to distract one Ruby Rose. One is bribe her with cookies. The other is to mention weaponry. Specifically, her baby, Crescent Rose. Almost immediately her eyes glistened with happiness at the question so she could talk all about her pride and joy that she built herself. And isn't that mighty impressive?

"Yeah! This is my baby Crescent Rose, a High Caliber Sniper-Scythe! She's really good at long to medium range, and I've gotten pretty good at using her at close range too."

I hummed in thought, using the conversation to distract from the pain as we continued on.

"Obviously good at long due to the sniper rifle aspect, medium is the same, as well as pole-arms are effective there as well. As fast as you move in close I'm going to guess you're using the recoil to swing it faster? You don't seem like you can wield something like that that quickly normally..."

"That and my Semblance is speed, so I can move really really fast! … You don't know what a Semblance is do you?" Damn, Ruby looks rather worried. And it's a rightful worry. Only two things keep people alive from the encroaching Grimm: Aura and Dust. Semblance is a part of Aura, and personalized to each person. Ruby had Speed, Weiss from her team had glyphs, etc. Once again, of course I know what that is. However, for the sake of convenience, I'm going to pretend… that I don't. Because awkward and inconvenient questions that I don't want to answer otherwise, such as how I know so much despite almost getting killed.

"… Can we avoid answering the semi-awkward questions until we're clear of the forest of soulless monsters that want to eat us?"

Ruby gained a light blush as she focused more on the path in front of us. "Right, good point, this isn't the best time to be asking questions."

Partially my own fault as I kept asking her some as well, but until she calls me out on that I'm gonna keep quiet. Need to not draw attention to my origins… or lack of memory. Bad lack of memory. I remember all sorts of survival skills, math skills, essentially raw data… but no memories of my life, not my friends, not their names, barely knowing that I have a family… This could be better… At the sound of rapidly crunching snow we both freeze, myself tensing up to get low to the ground and let Ruby tear into whatever's coming towards us as her hand is inching toward her weapon…. Before she relaxes as a figure comes into view. It was an older man, slightly built, grey hair, wearing black-grey clothing with an absolute BEAST of a scythe in his hands. I'm talking a weapon the size of Marluxia's from Kingdom Hearts, only the blade was like twice the size of his. It had a black blade and grey hilt, with black adornments on the back of the blade that looked like feathers. At a guess, this would be…

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby and Yang's uncle who rescued them from a pack of Grimm and taught Ruby how to use her own weapon, Qrow. Huh, so this is what he looks like. Well that's good to know. He seemed quite battle-ready at the moment, with a badass black trench-coat over a grey shirt and black pants. He seemed worried, I wonder wh- oh right, the Grimm and Ruby firing her gun. Yeah, that'd be a sign.

"Ruby! Are you alright? I heard gunfire so I came as quickly as a I could!" He gave me a quick glance before looking back to Ruby, before almost immediately looking back to me because it apparently took a second to register I was there. "And who's this?"

Ruby just chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry Uncle… A pack of Beowolves were nearby and attacked Orion here. I found him on his knees with just a knife in his hands with them circling. If I had been a second later all we would've found…"

She trailed off. I figured it made sense, most 14 year olds aren't used to seeing death, and as they're probably raised viewing Grimm as soulless monsters that need to die for the sake of the world, fair odds she doesn't view slaughtering the Grimm as killing. So the possibility of finding me as a corpse was apparently disturbing… Thank god. Seriously, a Bloody Rose variant would have sucked… soooo bad, mainly because they tend to be impossibly strong, and very sadistic/blood thirsty. I'd be dead in five seconds or less.

Qrow accepted this with a nod, shifting his attention to the surroundings. I can tell just by looking at him, I did NOT want to mess with this man. His stance, his expression, and his general focus just told me outright that right here in front of me was a bonafide badass who was a veteran of war. A man who was also protective of his family… Wait, don't most people in these types of situations end up- shit shit, no, don't go there, bad! We're going to circumvent that if possible, mainly because this guy is scary as hell without actually even trying to be intimidating.

"I always worried whenever you came here alone, Ruby… I'm glad that you're okay and that you were able to save this young man… Orion was it?" A quick nod of confirmation from me had him nodding back as he turned back the way he came. "I haven't seen any Grimm myself yet, but there's no idea how long that'll last. Ruby, keep supporting him, I'll take care of any Grimm that pop up."

At that I myself relaxed. Granted Ruby was awesome, and she just saved my life, which also makes her awesome, but she's still a kid. A trainee combatant. Qrow on the other hand is a veteran Hunter, someone who can and has torn into legions of Grimm like they were made of tissue. Him being here is very soothing to the nerves, or at least to mine. We continued in silence through the forest until we finally reached a paved road with a black car sitting in park next to it. Huh, I had always wondered how she got here from the city she apparently lived in… guess that'd be how. Ruby carefully helped me into the backseat as Qrow kept watch before clambering into the front herself, Qrow stepping into the driver side once he made sure we were clear and both of his current charges were secure in the car. He turned the key and proceeded off down the road, his eyes alert on his surroundings. Ruby turned around in her seat to look at me, still maintaining a worried expression.

"Are you doing okay? That was a nasty bite wound to your leg, and it doesn't look like you had used your Aura to shield it at all… or help it recover any either." I blinked; gotta remember that the little girl in front of me is a combat prodigy despite her age. She knows exactly what she's talking about when it comes to stuff like this. I just gave a nervous laugh and averted my eyes from her. Her face morphed into a deadpan at this.

"You have no idea what Aura is do you?" "Guilty. My memory seems a bit… spotty at the moment."

Qrow's yellow eyes glanced into the rearview mirror at this, probably a bit curious himself. "Young man, anywhere outside of the established cities is completely unsafe. I wonder why exactly you were out here, ill-equipped and dressed inappropriately, with no knowledge of the Grimm or any manner of self-defense."

I growled under my breath. "You're not the only one, sir. Last I remember, I was going to sleep in my bed. Next thing I know, I was falling through the air towards a bunch of trees and was getting attacked by a pack of what you call Beowolves in a snowy field. The only reason I'm not dead, aside from your niece's timely aid for which I again thank you Ruby, that was awesome and I owe you, is because I had sharpened one of the branches I had knocked loose from my fall and I'm, as I put it, too stubborn to die."

Qrow chuckled at this, before growing grim. "So you have no knowledge of how you got here? Do you know where this is? Do you know where we're going?"

I sighed, leaning back in the chair and being very careful to avoid moving my bandaged ankle. "Not a clue sir. I'm blaming some nonspecific deity currently, as I also have memory loss. Nothing really major, I still remember all sorts of raw facts and how to cook and the like, but personal information? Not a thing. The name I told your niece, Orion, from what I can remember is an old pen name of mine, and I'm using it now because I don't remember what my real one is. I'm in a crappy situation with surprising luck somehow."

The crow-themed man nodded, looking a bit thoughtful at this. "Judging from what you say, then, I'm going to assume then that you're not from here? Here as in the land of Remnant I mean."

Ruby just gaped at both Qrow and myself, I nodding at his words. "Fair odds that's so. I remember how to fight, and all sorts of information, but I don't know about Grimm? Or Aura? Two integral parts of survival? Yeah, I doubt myself that I'm from here." Two points for revealing that I'm from an alternate dimension WITHOUT causing people to freak out or ask me questions that I don't want to answer! Wait, why is Ruby leaning towards me?

"Uhhh… Rub-" "Does that mean you know all sorts of stories about other heroes and adventures?! Please please please tell me about them!"

Right hero obsessed. Forgot about that. Yeah we're going to stop that before she turns chibi. But wouldn't that look interesting? "Sure Ruby. It's the least I can do. On that note, however, while I hate to ask and be a burden to you, any chance I could stay with you guys for a time? At least until I can get a job doing something. I'm fairly sure my method of money won't work here, leaving me dead broke."

Qrow seemed to consider it as he drove, in the distance I could see a city that we were approaching. "Hmm, well, it would be rather inhumane to just leave you to your own devices while you're injured. At the very least, I suppose we could put you up until your ankle heals from that bite. So long as my nieces are okay with it, of course."

Ruby was vibrating with energy. "A new friend with all sorts of stories, yay!" How adorable. Must remember again that badass in combat, still a kid at heart. Wait, nieces… oh right Yang. Avoid suspicion go!

"Nieces?" "My other niece and Ruby's older sister, Yang. She's 16 and a bit volatile. Still, she's a good person, and very outgoing. I'm sure she'll be alright with helping out an injured person, even if they're stranger than most."

I nodded at this. "Much appreciated sir." A wince as my ankle throbbed. "If you don't mind, I'm just gonna try and rest for a bit. Maybe dull some of this pain." Though I couldn't see him as I closed my eyes immediately after that statement, I could practically feel Qrow's nod as he quietly told Ruby to get back in her seat properly. I drifted into my thoughts, slowing my breathing to at least give the illusion of sleeping. While Qrow probably didn't buy it, being what he was, he didn't comment, and Ruby apparently bought it herself, allowing me time to think.

_What to do? First, recover. Second, find a job. Nothing involving Beacon for now, Ozpin from what I remember is incredibly perceptive and having to keep even a small secret like I am from that man would be incredibly annoying. Learn to defend myself here, just in case. Too old to start learning how to Hunt, and I refuse to be one anyway. Let the heroes do their thing, I'll just try to survive. I suppose Yang could teach me some hand-to-hand, or at least serve as a sparring partner. And I could probably convince Ruby to help design me weaponry I can use in a pinch. For a job though… Well, anything involving Dust is out, considering what Roman and the White Fang do. I do NOT need that drama, thank you very much._

_Considering the comment that Qrow made about Yang's age, we're a year before the events of the show. That gives me time before things really go to hell… Show… Wait, there was a bookstore. T-t-t… Tukson's! Tukson's book trade! I can totally try there! Well, ok he's a White Fang faunus, but so long as I don't act like a racist I have a 50% chance of it working. It's a start, at least. And if I'm lucky, I can maybe prevent him from getting all assassinated by the henchman of Cinder later on. If that doesn't play out, maybe I can go to that nightclub… Before Yang wrecks it… Maybe not a good chance but ideas I suppose. Well, here's hoping to the future._

**AN: The plot bunnies… THEY WON'T STOP NIPPING MY ANKLES. Nah tis cool. Don't expect updates to be every day like this, I just need to get this out of my head and onto paper. Or text in this case… Hmm, anyway, my comments to subjects that have popped into my head!**

**Qrow: We… really don't know much about the man. At all. Aside from that he's a teacher and taught Ruby how to fight with her scythe, is a veteran Hunter, and saved the girls, we don't really have much to work with. So I took some creative liberty, giving him a black-grey color scheme and a monstrous scythe. No, it's just a scythe, I figured as he's older and far more experienced, he wouldn't need a recoil design like Ruby's to swing it around and as a Scythe is essentially a mid-long range weapon by itself, it'd be fairly effective to reap hordes of Grimm. I'll be developing him over time, though again, ideas are welcome here.**

**Lemons: So… yeah, the concept of smut. Gonna be perfectly honest, I'll probably have a few scenes close, as I'm surrounded by hot women and we're all hormonal as hell due to age, but an actual lemon is extremely unlikely, simply because the concept of writing something like that from my POV is… uncomfortable, to put it lightly. **

**Weapons: I already have a few ideas for this, but I'm willing to listen to others. Nothing involving guns, though, mainly because I'm not really comfortable with guns personally, due to knowing that I'm not a great shot. I rely more on simplistic designs anyway, so we'll see how this plays out.**

**Other characters: To be entirely honest, my first reaction to the idea of this when it popped in my head was a giant "NO!". However, I've been giving it thought, and there's only so many characters I can interact with, especially if I don't plan on attending Beacon. So, I may need a few to interact with that are just people trying to live, not aspiring Hunters/Huntresses. Cause there are already plenty of those.**

**Once again, please review, feel free to leave comments on your thoughts! I'm not going to stick to an actual update schedule, because then I would feel pressured. I'm just going to release chapters as I write them and they come to me. Hope you've been enjoying it so far, gonna try and keep the actual chapter length to 2k+ without the RRC and AN, those are there mainly for me to keep track of my thoughts and let you see my thought processes, as well as respond to those nice enough to review and interact with the community.**


	3. Chapter 3

**RRC: No new reviews T.T Hopefully this chapter and the next will spur some comments...**

**Stay a While and Listen**

I was pulled from my thoughts as the car began to slow. Guess I was out of it for longer than I thought: we had already pulled up to the driveway belonging to… I'm going to assume Qrow? Wait, didn't the sisters live with their dad…

"Here Ruby. Go grab your sister and let her know what has happened; I'll help our guest into your house." Your? So then Qrow doesn't live with them. Good to know I guess? Ruby was gone in a blur as soon as she opened the door. Qrow took a much more sedate pace to walk around the car to me, not that I minded, the less time actually spent with my weight on my ankle, the better. I opened the door from within and let him help me out, carefully keeping as much weight off my leg as I could. I nodded my thanks to him, and together we carefully approached the house, where I could hear a dog barking happily inside. Oh right, that super dog of theirs… now what was its name… meh it'll come to me, or they'll tell me.

"I would say it's surprising how slowly you're healing, but then from what you have told me and Ruby, it makes sense." What? I don't have some kind of regeneration factor… Guess my thoughts showed on my face as Qrow just chuckled. "One of the biggest uses of our Aura, aside from shielding our bodies, is to accelerate the healing process. Our soul is as much a part of our body as it is our mind, and it remembers how it should be. If it can, it attempts to revert the body to what it knows is correct, in most cases accelerating the process of healing drastically to reform the body. In a few it instead reverses the damage, but those are more a part of someone's Semblance than a standard skill in Aura manipulation."

Qrow apparently is a teacher. Yay information dump! "That's… kind of awesome. Where I'm from, things like that are more things of an occult nature, rumors and myths then any real thing. Quite honestly, most of what we had accomplished was based due to human creativity, though even that was limited, as we lacked such things as Aura. On the flip side, however, we don't have soulless monsters attempting to commit genocide on us, so we are a LOT more populous. Course, that leads to more of humans trying to kill each other, but what can you do?"

I would have shrugged my shoulders, but the position we were in made that difficult. Still, I think he got the message. He seemed to be in deep thought as he carefully brought me in through the front door, Ruby holding a grey little dog wiggling in her hands barking happily with a tall young woman with long yellow hair dressed in a yellow tank top and brown jeans standing next to her with a cheerful expression. That would be Yang then. Don't touch her hair…

"You two are so slow." I'm injured damn it Ruby! "This is my sister, Yang Xiao Long, and our dog, Zwei." Yang waved cheerfully at me from next to her sister as Qrow led me towards a living room like area.

"It's nice to meet you! Apparently my little sis saved you from some trouble?" "Beowolves. Suck. So much. I would offer to shake your hand, but let's wait until after I don't need either of them to remain standing, yes?"

The blonde just shrugged her shoulders uncaringly as I approached one of their two couches they had set up and had Qrow ease me into sitting down. Damn, that bite wound hurts like hell! At least the scratches I can easily ignore, sure they'd probably sting if someone touched them, but as is they're fine. Qrow moved to sit in the couch across from, with his older niece plopping down down next him. Ruby sat next to me, allowing Zwei to sniff me and greet me with a happy bark. I chuckled as I reach out a hand and scratched behind his ears, nodding at the girl that she could let him go, which allowed him to eagerly clamber into my lap and then lay down, eyes closed and content as I scratched soothingly. Yang blinked at this.

"Wow. Zwei's friendly to everyone who isn't hostile to us, but he never calms down like that. How'd you pull that off?" Considering that the dog was energetic enough to kick the shit out of Grimm himself, this isn't terribly surprising…

"For some odd reason, I have a calming effect on animals just by being nearby. They tend to relax quickly in my presence and just curl up for a nap, either nearby or cuddling next to me. It helps that they bond to me really fast as well. The effect also applies to humans to lesser degree, calming down when maintaining a conversation with them naturally. Unless, of course, I'm purposely riling them up, which is generally hilarious and calming them would be against that purpose." At this last, my soft smile while I was looking down at Zwei had turned into a cheeky grin at the blonde across from me. She returned it with a feral grin of her own.

"I think we're going to get along just fine." Yay, I made friends with two people who could possibly kill me without even thinking! Diplomacy for the win! With this crossing my mind, my attention shifted to Qrow who hadn't spoken up since we entered the house. "Everything alright sir?"

He blinked, seeming to come out of a trance, before waving me off. "Just call me Qrow, you're not one of my students. I was just considering any way to help you heal faster from that bite, and the only thing that pops to mind is unlocking your aura. I'm hesitant to do so, however, as I'm unsure if it would even work, or how you being from a different dimension would affect such a thing."

Yang just a confused expression on her face at that last part, though I could see Ruby gesturing that she'd explain later, so I closed my eyes and leaned back, humming in thought. One of my hobbies to kill my spare time was to look into the various definitions and beliefs of our life energy, ki. While I didn't follow a particular path or anything, I was at least fairly knowledgeable, and there was a chance…

"Mmm.. Maybe it'd take? While we didn't have such a thing as aura, we had several beliefs in the workings of nature or the use of our own internal energy. We had a belief that such a thing would take years of self-introspection and meditation to even get a glimpse of such a thing, and it was more reliant on the theory of an abundance of life energy, not the power of our soul. Several beliefs of reincarnation based on your actions, how each step you take is towards enlightenment in the next life, that sort of thing. I'm bastardizing, but you probably get the picture. If I had to take a guess, while it's possible that the people of my world had a chance at something similar to Aura, we probably didn't develop it as it was unnecessary, being able to rely on our own creative ability to get by. Can you actually unlock someone's Aura? It seems rather odd for that to be possible, considering as you said that it's a lot along the lines of something rather intensely personal for someone, seeing as it is your soul and all."

At this my eyes opened to see Qrow nodding to these thoughts, while Yang seemed a bit curious about what I was talking about, Ruby too. "Certainly. All teachers at the various academies know how to do so, as we get a number of students who enroll without any knowledge of Aura. While we prefer if people unlock it themselves, sometimes they are unable to muster the mental focus but are perfectly competent at learning the rest about being a Hunter or Huntress, so we unlock it for them. Most veteran Hunters know how to do so as well, regardless if they're teachers or not, and some exceptionally gifted warriors in training know how to. I haven't taught Ruby yet, as while a prodigy in combat and engineering she is rather young to learn about something such as that, but Yang knows how to so, which is lucky."

I tilted my head to the side curiously, ceasing my scratching of Zwei's ears, who seems to have nodded off anyway. "How so?"

"Because as you said, it is an intensely personal thing to unlock someone's aura, and here it is impossible for a man to unlock another man's aura, or a woman a woman's, unless they're capable of feeling romantic attraction to that gender. It is theorized that this is due to the mental/emotional aspect of what we see as the soul, only allowing access to you if you are capable of being intertwined in the future. Essentially, you must be capable of falling in love with the person who's soul that you wish to unlock." Qrow's face was completely blank at saying this, while both of his nieces were blushing intensely. I myself wasn't entirely bothered at this, just chuckling.

"I think I see where you're going. Why allow access of the deepest part of yourself to someone who you may be incapable of truly trusting deep down? Following that logic, why would you want to access someone that you wouldn't be able to feel that for? Makes sense. And before we all get worried, yes I am attracted to women, so no we don't need to track down a homosexual man to unlock my aura if that's what we want to do." If Qrow wasn't as composed as he was, I could definitely see him letting a sigh of relief at this from the expression on his face. As it is, his body seemed to relax a touch, turning towards Yang, My own head tilted towards her as well.

"All of this is moot however unless Yang here wishes to attempt to unlock your Aura. If she doesn't, then we'll need to wait until I can get a hold of a female colleague to do so." Yang blinked. Blinked again. Began gesturing frantically. "Wait wait wait what?! Hold on a second, yeah he seems like a nice fellow and all but what if he doesn't want me to…" She trailed off as I laughed at her.

"Yang, you seem like a good person, and from the attitude of both your uncle and your sister, I sincerely doubt you would do anything that could purposely harm me unless I provoked you. I trust you, if you want to try and give it a shot." She seemed to consider, before jumping to her feet, a determined expression on her face.

"Alright, if it means helping someone, we'll give it a try! Ruby, trade me places?" That said, the yellow and red sisters swapped spots, Yang now sitting next to me while Ruby took her place next to Qrow, picking up Zwei as she did so, causing him to let out a discontented whine at the loss his pillow, though he seemed aware enough of the mood that he didn't try to wander back over. Yang set her hands on my shoulders, a focused look on her face as her eyes began to shift to red from their normal lilac color, a golden-yellow aura overtaking her body.

"_**For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." **_Whoever came up with those words had a flair for the dramatic, I swear. Very touching though, and quite flowery. I could practically feel the effect of her actions, a wave of heat transmitting from her hands to flow throughout my entire body. That's… interesting. And then I noticed that everything seemed to be fading out from view, except for the color her aura, which seemed to be getting brighter every second, and an orange glow as well. I heard panicked shouts from both Ruby and Qrow, suggesting that something was wrong, before everything faded out of view except for a mix of orange-gold-yellow light.

_Something tells me that maybe we should have thought this through a little more…_

**AN: Alright, so I literally cannot get the ideas to stop. And apologies for just barely breaking 2k words here, but it was mainly more exposition on the concept of Aura and how it mixes with our world's concepts of things such as Chakra and QI or things such as religion and some major differences in our worlds. Essentially, info dump chapter for a bit more background info! And the activation of my own Aura, except it doesn't seem to be going smoothly, now does it? Some notes on topics I point out:**

**Can someone not of Remnant use Aura?: This one is a bit of an argued subject among us fans of RWBY. I personally believe that it is possible, solely because it is the manifestation of our soul, and following the logic of the Grimm not having it due to not having a soul, then if you have one, you can access Aura. Don't like it? Deal with it, my story, my rules. My Aura is going to function a touch differently from the main cast though, due to the imperceptible differences in souls between different realities.**

**Teachers and Aura: Admittedly, this is a bit of an assumption, as for all we know everyone aside from Jaune managed to unlock theirs through training. However, I figure it'd be a safe bet for anyone that's a Veteran Hunter or a teacher to know how to do it, simply out of necessity or to aid in the teaching process. There's always going to be a few people in a group who just can't quite grasp a concept, so they need a way to reach their Aura anyway if they want to be a Hunter. I'm assuming Pyrrha knows how due to being a prodigy herself that has CONSTANTLY been in combat tournaments and is a few years older and wiser than Ruby. Yang knows because Qrow, as her uncle, felt it'd be useful knowledge to have just in case. And because plot, that's why.**

**Romance = Aura?: Ok, that topic could've been titled better. Anyway, this one is purely my belief, and here's its basis: your soul is truly who you are on an existential level. Unless you're capable of bonding with someone in a manner that is nigh permanent, that being love because its cheesy, then you will not be able to reach their soul or allow them access to yours. Yang's a trusting person, extremely outgoing, and figures I'm a good person due to how her dog, which is extremely intelligent, Ruby, and her uncle treat me. On my side, I know Yang's character to a certain degree because metagaming of being from where she's just a story, and her willingness to help me because she has the power to do so helps with that. Yes I am heterosexual, to a certain point. On that note…**

**Sexuality: This is a fun one. And really tricky to touch without offending someone too… ok, so we'll go over each character as we meet them. For now, Qrow is straight, Ruby's uncertain (hasn't had to care yet), and Yang's pansexual (there seems to be more females than males at times, and Yang seems like the type of person to not care about the gender of a person if she cares about them). If this offends you at all, then I apologize, but that's how it's going to be, and I'm not changing my story simply because it offends you. Following that, I call myself heterosexual to a point simply because I have a remarkable amount of self-control and can become asexual for a time. I bounce between a and heterosexual depending on the circumstances. **

**So again, short chapter, but next chapter I promise will be longer, and will shortly follow this one. Dragged into my mind/soul scape, Yang and I must explore and figure out what's going on, how do we fix it, and how do we get out? And can we activate my Aura in the process?**


	4. Chapter 4

**RRC: Double Update, no time for reviews to come in from the previous chapter.**

**Dive into the Soul**

Yang blinked rapidly as the light faded from her eyes. What happened? Last she remembered, she was trying to unlock Orion's Aura, but something reacted and amidst the panic of her relatives both he and her were enveloped in what she assumed was their mutual Auras, recognizing her distinctive color in the light and figuring that the orange was his. Looking around, all she saw was a white plain filled with nothing. She spoke up, a little worried.

"Hello? Orion? You there?" They were literally connected at the moment, he couldn't be far from her could he? A cough from behind her gave her a response. Turning, she found herself actually given a chance to look him over. A young man standing at 5'10", he had a stocky build that made him seem to weigh less than he actually did. Thick brown hair barely reaching the top of his neck from behind and covering his forehead in front, his eyes a brown-green mixture of color. He stood relaxed in front of her, clothed in black and orange surprisingly, which was odd as that wasn't what he was wearing before… And why was he looking away from her? It was empty wasn't it?

"Yang. Seems like you're okay. I'm going to take a guess that what happened isn't normal." She shook her head at his statement, causing him to sigh. "Joy. I think our best bet is to assume that what we have here isn't physical, more of a mental representation of ourselves. Before we try experimenting too much, maybe you should imagine yourself wearing clothes?" Clothes? Why… She looked down and almost screamed at the fact that she was completely bare in front of someone she barely knew! Hunching down and covering herself, she glared at him as she felt a blush rising to her cheeks, as well as the fire begin in her hair signifying that her eyes were probably shifting their coloration. He defensively held up his hands and backed away slowly.

"Not my fault! Not that you have anything to be embarrassed about, mind you, but I… let's say woke up the same way. Just picture a set of clothes on your body, don't bother with color, it seems that the color is chosen subconsciously." Continuing to glare at him, Yang did so, and could feel the weight of cloth settle on her skin. Standing back, she appraised herself and nodded in approval at her combat uniform, only in a mix of gold and dull yellow instead of the normal yellow/brown. She returned her attention to Orion as he seemed to be in thought, going back to glaring.

"If you tell anyone what you saw…" "Yes yes, you'll break my legs or some other horrid threat. Honestly, I meant what I said when I mentioned you had nothing to be ashamed of. And who the hell would believe me, this isn't normal." She blushed at that practically offhand comment, as he really didn't seem like he was paying attention right now, instead concentrating deeply about something…

* * *

So… that was a thing. Yang is undeniably hot, and if it wasn't for my, in my own humble opinion, phenomenal self-control, I may have had a physical reaction I wouldn't've been able to hide. That would have been awkward… And right now we needed to focus on the situation at hand, and her not wearing clothes would've been incredibly distracting. Hopefully I remember that view though, that was awesome…

"So, where are we?" Yang's words made me snap out of my thoughts, bringing my attention back to her. "All I see is you and me, and my clothes match my aura. Though I'm wondering why you have two distinctly separate colors?"

"Probably because of their meaning. Where I'm from, I was born on a holiday that had it's main colors be orange and black. I subconsciously am drawn to those colors in clothing to wear, generally black but I will wear shades of orange or red for formal occasions. The color of your Aura, of your soul, is probably registered as an important fact in your own subconscious, hence the coloration of your clothes. As for where we are… Good question. At a guess, and if this works…" I concentrated hard, and suddenly the scene shifted. Instead of just a general white emptiness, we were now in front of a house built _into_ a gigantic tree, lush colors surrounding us everywhere. I nodded as Yang looked around in wonder at the area.

"Okay, glad that worked. Following that, I'm assuming some sort of shared mindscape, as you have some control considering you were able to clothe yourself. I suppose that there were some fundamental differences between our souls that caused us to be brought here, which I suppose is us trying to figure out what went wrong, or if there's something wrong that needs to be fixed. Here is an area from an old video game I played, this area funnily enough called 'Home'. I chose it because I did spend a lot of time exploring the game and at least a third of my time was spent in this area. Let's see… maybe we should test it a bit? Why don't you try imagining a few things Yang?"

Yang nodded, admiring the beauty of the area a moment more before turning away. "This is really weird… Cool, but weird. Before I try anything though…" And without any warning she decked me in the face and sent me flying, causing me to crash through the door in the home and onto a wooden table, scattering various items set upon it across the floor. "That's for looking at me while I was naked! You could've told me to clothe myself before I turned around!"

I worked my jaw a moment, mentally resetting my nose and erasing the damage inflicted upon me. Damn that girl's got an arm… "I deserve that, I'll admit. Now could you please- oh. Well this is… interesting."

Around me, while I had been focusing on fixing myself up, the scene had changed again, though this time I'm guessing at her volition. It was a dark forested area, with bushes scattered about. Little light shone from the moon, and next to Yang was a red wagon with a figure bundled inside. She looked rather solemn, but had also imagined herself with her gauntlets, Ember Celica, equipped.

"This is from a memory of my own… a rather deep one. I'd rather not talk about it, but it was the first place that came to mind." Really now? Wait… Oh shit, this must be where Qrow had rescued Ruby and her from a pack of Grimm when they were younger! Damn, that is a personal memory. Not going to touch that for now. I really don't want to be punched in the face again, she hits like a truck.

"Fair enough. Well, it at least seems to be shared… So neither of us are defenseless here at least, considering we both clothed ourselves and are able to shift the scene. Considering you were able to arm yourself…" I took a second to focus, my arm outstretched to my side, before a weapon appeared in my grip. While not something I personally own, I figured I could use a halberd rather well, due to some quarterstaff training I picked up in my spare time. The blade on it was twice the size of a normal halberd's blade, though to make up for this it curve heavily on the inside, giving it a wicked looking appearance. The shaft itself was six feet long, plenty of room for me to work with. I gave it an experimental twirl, satisfied with the weight and how it felt in my hands, before noticing Yang's expression. "Don't start. Knowing my luck since getting to Remnant, we'll probably need these armaments before we get out of here."

Yang just snorted. "Right. What do you mean since getting to Remnant? It's our land isn't it? Why wouldn't you be from here, there's only Grimm otherwise."

Oh right, Yang hadn't been told about the fact that I was from another world. Well, may as well since we have nothing else to do currently… "Ok, have you read fantasy books?" A nod from the hot-tempered blonde. "You ever hear of the Multiverse theory?" Another nod, though less sure. "Right, well, here's the working theory Qrow and I have come up with…"

I spent the next unknown amount of time explaining my apparent origins to Yang, answering questions as necessary as the scene began to shift again without us focusing on it. She seemed to disbelieve me at first, until I conjured various items from my home to demonstrate and extrapolated on some of the various religions. She seemed surprised at those, but then I guess having to fight a losing battle against soulless monsters intent on genocide may kill any belief in a form of god, just or not. She was rather suitably impressed by all the various martial arts forms we had, but seemed disapproving of a few things.

"So, instead of making a weapon to destroy giant creatures, your world designed weapons to slaughter mass amounts of people at once? And you call yourselves humane?" "In our defense… ok aside from the blatant stupidity displayed at times, we really were running out of options. Without those, that war would have been a _lot _longer. The Japanese were not very willing to just stop…"

So that took a decent chunk of time to kill. By the end of our conversation, the scenery had finally decided to pick something. And I'm apparently going to call shenanigans on myself, as it was similar to the dive to the heart scenes performed by the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts. All around us was darkness, with some sort of ambient light allowing us vision. We were standing on what seemed to be a massive stained glass platform. Depicted on it were myself, obviously, with my newfound halberd held at my side, standing at attention. Surrounding me depicted on the blue background were various profile shots of several people, though almost of all them were shaded black. The two that were revealed were shots of Yang and Ruby, both cheerful and smiling. At a guess then, the others would be the rest of the RWBY cast, as my subconscious/soul or whatever nonspecific deity dumped me here has a stupid sense of humor and decided that fucking with me in the manner of a _Disney_ game would be hilarious. Yang took a look around, and chuckled at seeing hers and Ruby's profile upon the glass.

"As this seems like something obviously from your soul, it's a bit odd that you have me and Ruby on there. Have something to tell me O?" "O? Guess it'll do… and hey, in my defense, while this is from a memory, it's only from a game. Not even perfectly depicted either, as I wasn't on the one from the game, nor were you or Ruby. Why the hell would I know?"

I just know I'm going to be teased relentlessly about this… At that thought, I shuddered as an almost freezing feeling passed through my body. _So much shenanigans… This is either going to be epic in the long run, or suck, or both. Probably both._

"Well, it wouldn't have any meaning if it was just photocopied right?" Yang instantly went on guard at this, but I didn't even bother, instead turning to where I was somehow projecting a shadow. True to form, it began to expand away from me, though interestingly enough the black from my outfit also pulled away, leaving me clothed in clothes of various orange. I scowled at this as Yang turned back to me to see my shadow and the black of my clothing begin to coalesce into a figure.

"I do not pull off just orange, this is just terrible looking." "True, but if there was some black there again you wouldn't look half bad. You didn't before…" "Now who has something to tell who Yang?" "Hey, I call them like I see them." Amidst our casual banter, the figure finally coalesced into a mono-black mirror image of me, with blood-red eyes and no weapon in hand. Surprisingly it didn't attack, instead tilting its head at me.

"… Yeah honestly I think maybe I shouldn't have taken the black when I pulled this…" I just gaped before flipping him off with my left hand, Yang continuing to gape at my apparent darker self. "Fuck you, it is entirely your fault that all this has happened I bet." "Only the being dragged into your soul part, and I didn't even mean to drag Blondie into it. Everything else is again because you have crappy luck." My shoulders slumped at this. "God damnit, why… So why are you pulling this shit?"

My opposite shrugged. "Because Blondie there unlocked the entirety of your soul, even that which you kept away from everyone else." I just stared at him. "Bullshit. I completely admitted I had a dark side to anyone who bothered to ask. What is this Persona or some shit?" Yang gave me a weird look. "Another video game, explanations later. Also, for the sake of my convenience instead of calling you 'dark' me Imma just call you Shadow."

Shadow shrugged. "Fits. Not like you didn't have that as a pen name before. And the fact that you acknowledged me is why I'm not axe crazy and attempting to kill you and her in a blind murderous rampage right now." I considered this statement. "Fair enough. So I'm I can freely use my Aura?" Yang was gaping at both of us now, probably because it would be extremely odd to see someone so casually conversing with their darker self.

Said darker self considered this statement. "Actually you can use Aura already, I was just gonna block you from your Semblance until you came to accept me and quit hiding me from public eye. I like your mortal combat idea better though." I facepalmed, I could practically feel Yang glaring at me. "Really, I haven't even played the fourth game where that happened! I call shenanigans!" Shadow just deadpanned at me. "Hence why we're just going straight to the attempt to kill each other option for who gets control here. And no I'm not explaining how you use your Aura, Blondie gives you a big enough advantage as is." "QUIT CALLING ME THAT AND STOP TALKING LIKE I'M NOT HERE!" Cue explosion of fire from said blonde who, while probably justifiable proud of her hair and its color was also probably fed up of it being used in a semi-derogatory way and being practically ignored. The glass behind her shattered, leaving us half an arena, with both me and Shadow carefully backing away from her. I raised my hands in a calming gesture.

"Sorry Yang. Essentially you attempting to unlock my Aura has apparently also brought the darker side of me and so we have to beat him down in order to let me use my Semblance freely, simple enough?" "Why am I helping?" "Because your stuck here anyway and I can guarantee you don't want Shadow to win?" "That's cold." "Oh shut up."

Yang considered this, then shrugged. "Not like I have much of a choice at the moment. Though it would be nice to fight somewhere else, not really much room here." Shadow snapped his fingers, and the environment changed to a dusty canyon, boulders of various sizes surrounding us. I nodded my approval at this, and Yang seemed ok with it. I turned my eyes to my darker self who seemed pleased with all of this. "So… how are we going to do this? Because me and her in straight up human fight against you would equal death…"

"Oh yeah, that's easy. I'm going to turn into a giant demonic monster with a set amount of aura that you'll have to drain, representing my life force, which in a manner is true as I'm using a part of your aura to exist. You in turn are using aura to exist as well, so we're sharing a finite amount of aura between us. While in a mindscape you could easily erase fatigue and the like, and Blondie will be able to freely refill her aura just by willing it, you and I have a set amount. One of us runs out, we die, and the other takes command." Deadpan stare. He just shrugged. "Final boss shenanigans are final boss shenanigans. At least I'm not summoning minions." I just sighed, readying my weapon as Yang took up a combat stance beside me. "God damnit… fine, let's get this bullshit over with. I swear, whichever upper level deity _douchebag_ is fucking with me is going to get kicked **so hard **in the nuts…"

Shadow just chuckled lowly, a sound that was slowly morphing into a deep booming malevolent laughter as his form twisted and expanded, finally coalescing into a massive horned figure vaguely resembling Diablo, if Diablo was bipedal and had a black-grey color scheme. I readied my own weapon, prepared to battle for my very soul…

Only for the sound of gunshots to ring out unexpectedly and for Shadow to stagger back as multiple bullets impacted across his before finally falling down as a red blur impacted with his head with several cuts. Flying away with another gunshot as he fell, the red figure landed in front of me and Yang with her scythe at the ready. "Orion! Yang! I'm here to help you!" Cue me facepalming as Shadow finally hit the ground.

"Goddamnit Ruby… We had this under control! It was going to be a straight up fight, me and Yang versus the dark part of my soul, and it was going to be epic and grand, and now you've probably pissed him off! Actually, how the hell did you get in here? It's a shared soulscape for god's sake!" Ruby looked like she was pondering only the last part of that statement. "Well, you and Yang have been out for like five minutes, and uncle Qrow was getting worried. I just forcefully injected my aura into you guys and ended up here." Well that made some sense. It at least explained why she was armed and dressed in her normal clothes. Wait… "So you can feel romantic love for Yang?" Yang just burst out laughing at this while Ruby flushed a brilliant red. "NO! Familial bonds are the exception to the rule for Aura matters is all!" "… Fair enough. Anyway, we had this completely under cont…"

"**THAT'S IT, SCREW THIS, YOUR GETTING ZERG RUSHED!" **Oh right, he was still there… and was indeed pissed off. Yang just looked a bit irritated at that as the demonic form clambered to his feet, the darkness of the valley seeming to shift and writhe as his will manifested. I sighed, bringing my weapon up in both hands as Ruby moved to be on my left, readying Crescent Rose while Yang took up a boxing stance on my right.

_This is going to be *fun*…_

**AN: Whooo double update! Because the last one was short, but I couldn't stop it anywhere else to make it work, and I don't want to make really long chapters if I can avoid it. So yeah, this is going to finally lead to a real battle scene next chapter of myself, Ruby, and Yang vs. my Shadow and the minions he'll spawn from the depths of my mind. Ruby and Yang will have access to their Aura and essentially unlimited ammo, and while I can't use Aura as this is a mental plane I'll have a few tricks to wield myself against my darker side. So thoughts:**

**Dive into the Soul: I figured that the process of unlocking one's soul to let them use it as a source of energy for protection and combat would be a bit more difficult than a few fancy words and a light show. However, as it happened that way canonically, my excuse is that there are differences between the human soul from the world of Earth and the soul of a humanoid from Remnant which makes the process manifest differently. Partially ripped off KH for this, but it works.**

**Shadow: So… yeah I have a pen name of Shadow, and yes I'm lazy and somewhat ripping off Persona. Makes sense to me: Persona is viewed as your mind made manifest, and it'll somewhat link to what I've decided my semblance to be. We're just skipping over the acceptance part and just having mortal combat because I fully admit that I have a darker side, I just keep it suppressed consciously instead of unconsciously like most people. **

**Yang's brief POV: This'll probably happen a few times, not for Yang specifically but overall. If I feel I can get better impact with my writing from someone else's point of view, I'll briefly write it from their side, third person. Probably not going to do a full chapter like that, but it'll more than likely pop up a time or two again. **

**Me with a halberd: Yes, I do know how to use a quarterstaff to a certain degree, and it's essentially a quarterstaff with an axe on one end, or at least that's how I treat it. It's going to have a few tricks in store next chapter, and this'll probably become the basis of my weapon throughout the rest of the story.**

**Familial bonds transcend romantic: This should be obvious, and not really need explaining. The reason Qrow was unable to do the same as he is heterosexual, thus preventing him because of my presence. Ruby can because she's again undecided and is Yang's younger sister. Speaking of the Rose…**

**Ruby's presence: Figured why not? She essentially got in by brute forcing her soul into the connection between me and Yang. She has her clothes because she was slightly better prepared for something odd to happen, and she came in in a different manner then me and Yang.**

**So please review! And if you could, leave a few suggestions for battle music? I have a couple, but I can't decide, so any suggestions will be appreciated and noted next chapter! **


	5. Chapter 5

**RRC: Let's see here…**

** Chris7221: Criticism yay. That's not sarcastic, I truly do appreciate your blunt appraisal, as I will straight up admit that writing in any form is my weak point and needs improvement. As to your points…. I'll try to stick to keeping the info dumps inside of ANs and focus more on plot so you can skip if you don't care/ it doesn't drag attention away from the story. And actually make clear who's talking.**

**And here we are! Fight scene. Feel free to picture your own music, as I can't decide.**

**Battle for the Soul**

I spoke quickly in a firm tone as I focused on my weapon, shifting the axe head. "Ruby, Yang. Your limited only by your mind here, so don't worry about ammo and aura reserves. Ruby, you're quick, stay mobile, strike whatever you can whenever you can. Yang, you seem like a bruiser, get in close quick and hammer the giant demon, I'll be trying to not get hit by said giant demon and dealing with the minions as best as I can." Not much of a battle plan, but they seemed to agree readily enough, judging by the sound of weapons cocking behind me. As I finished speaking, my halberd had a new blade, that of a lochaber axe, only twice the size and reverse so that the curve was towards me, allowing a spike that protruded from the tip of my weapon to now be able to be used. Shifting my grip, I spun it before slamming the shaft into the ground, a loud _BOOM! _resounding from the point of impact across the canyon. Several floating platforms of rock formed in the air, nullifying Shadow's height advantage somewhat.

"GO!" I roared, spinning my weapon again to divide the weapon in thirds with my grip as Yang and Ruby darted forward with a gunshot past the first line of figures that just barely finished forming as they passed, leaving me to deal with them as they advanced through the horde towards my darker self. The first line seemed ripped right from a game, skeletons colored black with short blades in hand. They charged me with a clattering of bones as I set my stance to meet them. Thankfully, operating minions and his own giant body must have been difficult, as the rush was staggered, allowing me to meet them one at a time. The first to get in range found my axe buried in its skull, actually cutting through in a simple sweep. The second approached, weapon raised, only to meet my boot in its rib cage to send it stumbling back as I swung again, cutting through the torso of this one. A third actually swing, but was blocked and then sent to the ground as I stepped around it with a kick to the back of its leg and then dealt with by stabbing it with the tip of my weapon. The rest were dealt with in a similar manner. My strategy focusing on dodging what I could and blocking what I couldn't, leaving me in the end surrounded by black bodies dissipating slowly with a cut on my back that I hadn't been able to entirely get out of range from, sneaky bastard.

The sisters seemed to doing fine. A blur of red showed where Ruby was passing through, bullets flying from her position to take care of targets outside of the reach of her scythe and her current position, occasionally a few striking out at Shadow when she could spare a few seconds to fire at him. Her speed and prodigious combat skill had her cutting through ranks of mooks at once, so I wasn't too terribly worried about her. She wasn't an actual target in the first place, and even if she was she had her Aura to protect her if she even ever got hit.

Yang almost seemed to have her entire body aflame as she jumped around her giant opponent, gunshots ringing out continuously as she hammered it with bullets, the beast actually staggering when she was able to use placement of the platforms and her own momentum to get to a point above his legs to actually land a solid blow. She probably was aflame, honestly, more than likely allowing a few of the minions to hit her to empower her semblance before she went in against the big boss. While odds are not a prodigy like her sister, Yang was still an incredibly gifted fighter with few equals, and it showed, Shadow's pained roars and screams of frustration as he took hits and was unable to land any on the nimble blond a telling sign of her progress.

I already knew that as an average human, I wouldn't match up to many of the warriors here, once I came to terms that I was indeed no longer on Earth. However, watching these two seem to almost casually deal with my darker self and his horde formed of wrath made me realize just how outclassed I was, and how lucky I was to have their help and that they were friendly in the first place. I was brought of my musing sharply as I had to dodge a claymore-like blade, the black skeletons now having variations in arsenal, medieval weapons ranging from war-scythes to longsword and shield. If I stuck to ground level, with this much space, I'd get overwhelmed. Right then, time to abuse the fact that physics didn't entirely matter!

A spin of my weapon brought the pommel of it once again into the ground, an orange ring emanating from the burst to encircle me. Following that, I crouched and tensed, before jumping, rocketing upward towards a nearby platform that I could more safely watch the sisters battle from. Well, that was the plan, until I had to partially block a gigantic claw swinging at me and sending me crashing into the cliff face. Shit, lost track of where Shadow's arms were. Yang was making him pay with several rounds to his eyes as his focus was returned to her in his rage, but that still hurt damnit! I fell from where I had impacted the wall to land on an elevated platform attached to it with a pained groan. Hissing, I brought back myself back to my feet with the aid of my halberd, observing my new place to stand.

A rectangular platform, the length was at twenty feet with width ten. Plenty of room to for me to work with and not enough skeletons to overwhelm me without getting pushed over the edge for their efforts. Speaking of the skeletons, more kept forming in the ground around Shadow's legs, which led me to the assumption that they were taking bits of his aura to reform. Ruby's efforts in cutting them down like wheat and my own attempts at survival were hurting him, though probably not as much as Yang. Before I could cheer at that, a massive skeleton landed on the platform, looking identical to the Skeleton King, except in his hands lay a massive sledge that I'm fairly sure would at minimum would break bones. Right, time to dodge!

I jumped back from his first horizontal swing, and rolled under the second to be next to him. He responded to this with an upwards vertical swing which I side-stepped carefully, stabbing him with the tip of my halberd before quickly disengaging and hastily backing away as a downswing almost crushed me. In turn, I spun and slashed across his rib cage, leaving a decent gouge that sadly didn't deter him any as he brought his sledge around and swung at me again, damn near catching me as I once again backed away, thanking that we were facing each other across the length and that no other minions had climbed up, though I attributed that to the fact that they had a better chance of being knocked off by accident by either of us then actually hitting me. Another upward vertical swing had be bouncing back on my heels before I dashed in close and shoulder-checked him, sending him staggering back and almost causing him to lose his grip on his hammer as he attempted to maintain his balance. Sadly, that failed, as I brought my left leg around to firmly kick him in his torso, sending him to the ground. Another quick jump and spin of my weapon brought it impaling his blackened overly large skull, causing his movement to cease as I let out a tired breath. I was in good shape, but not combat trained, and that earlier hit took a lot more from me than expected.

I cast eyes back again to Shadow only to see Ruby, moving even faster than what I had seen before and scythe whirling around her, hit him like a truck in one of his shoulders, gouging a good bit from him with her constantly swinging weapon. An incandescent Yang impacted his other shoulder with a massive impact as well, sending him falling back down to the ground once more. He didn't move to get up this time, but an inhuman wrathful bellow caused all of the skeletons to cease movement, before losing their form and beginning to head back to rejoin his body. A few gunshots signified the return of Yang and Ruby to my position, Ruby having a few tears in her cloak and Yang sporting red eyes and a few bruises. They seemed quite happy despite that.

Yang spoke up first. "This has been going pretty well! He's fairly slow when he's that big, meaning I can hit him all day long."

Ruby next. "Even the smaller forms he made up are kinda slow compared to me. They were a bit easier than Grimm." Jesus, I knew was outclassed, but damn these two were powerful. Once again, glad they're on my side. However, as Shadow was me…

I growled under my breath, spinning my weapon so it was blade down. "Don't too happy. No way it's this easy. I wouldn't go down without a massive blaze of glory, I doubt he'll do it either."

Yang just chuckled. "Well, he's completely outmatched. Quality beats quantity in this case, so what's to worry about?" Oh damnit Yang-

Movement caught my eye as I turned to yell at Yang for jinxing us, only for my attention to be drawn to a black pulsating orb that had replaced the demonic figure. Suddenly it pulsed a lot more violently, generating massive winds as a black wave rippled away from it rapidly. Stabbing my blade into the ground, I grabbed a hold of Yang and held her tight despite her yell of surprise and protest as first the winds, then the black pulse hit us, sending me skidding back with her despite our combined weight and my grounded weapon. As the winds slowed, I released her and opened my eyes, no longer in danger of being blinded by the wind. The scenery was beginning to shift again, but as I looked around I cursed noticing a very important detail.

"Shit, Ruby was blown away, she must've been caught off-guard by that last pulse. Just you and me Yang, you up for it?"

Yang just grinned at me, cocking Ember Celica. "Heh, it's been fun so far, despite your angry side being a _titanic_ asshole." That twinkle in her eye told me that the word choice wasn't accidental.

I deadpanned at her as the scenery began to finalize around us. "You did that on purpose. Hotness does not exclude you from being punished for bad humor lady."

Yang just blinked. "You think I'm hot?" Oh for the love of…

I facepalmed. "Yes, and no it's not just because you're literally on fire next to me we already went over this focus!" I looked around, pulling my weapon from the ground and shifting it so the blade up and in front of me. Our environment was now that of a black platform suspended in space, the scenery shifting in various familiar ways…

Yang gave me a look as our attention was brought back to the now still orb of darkness and rage. "Another game? Think you had a bit too much free time?"

I shrugged, paying close attention as the orb began to turn into a figure that, while smaller than that massive beast of before, still towered over us a good four feet. "Hey, not all of us can train to superhuman levels in order to fight human-hating horrors." Yang opened her mouth to speak before I cut her off. "This is completely out of the ordinary and not at all my fault." She just chuckled as Shadow finally finished shapeshifting.

This time he took a more combat capable form against two humanoid size opponents. A variation of the Hindu Asura was in front of us, only one face but still maintaining the six arms and holding a sword in each one. A growl rumbled from his throat as he stared down at us, Yang settling into a boxing stance once more as I readied my weapon. A deep booming voice echoed from around us, making my eye twitch.

"**Round Two. Fight!" **I need to lay off the video games…

Charging forward with a wordless yell, I deflected the first blade swing with my axe, getting closer I deflected another, and then a third, then I had to block two at once with either side of my weapon as I shifted my grip back to the Western European style of dividing it into thirds. At this point I could get no closer, having to focus on deflecting and parrying for fear of being struck while my arms were occupied with blocking previous blades. Clashing metal sent sparks flying around us as my halberd danced between my hands, barely keeping the swords from hitting me and unable to attack myself. I wouldn't be able to maintain this forever, but thankfully I wasn't alone.

At that thought, the distinctive sound of Ember Celica firing was followed by a pained grunt as the shell impacted into the Asura's face, temporarily blinding it as it staggered back. I took advantage of this to spin myself and my weapon, generating momentum to leave a decent gash in Shadow's torso. This was followed by me continuing my spin to catch Yang on the shaft of my weapon and giving her a boost into the air aided by another round of bullets, bringing her into range to land a devastating punch to Shadow's face and sending him flying back to skid along the floor. We shared a smile between us, we could do this!

Dashing forward myself, I gave him no time to recover, my body and weapon whirling as I launched multiple blows as he staggered to his feet, himself now on the defensive as he knew I could hurt him and blocking a blow only for me to redirect my momentum in another spin to launch at a different angle. A well-timed blow knocked his blades aside as Yang jumped over me and landed another series of blows into him, impacting him harshly. A final blow to his jaw sent him reeling as she fell back, leaving me to charge forward and perform an upwards vertical slash, cutting another gouge and marking a cross in his body along with the various bullets wounds and bruises caused by Yang. He skidded back, letting out a pained roar. Yang rushed past me, intent to follow through, hair ablaze, only to be caught off guard as Shadow swung all six blades at once, intersecting at one point that she blocked and was sent flying, and then found herself impaled by four of the blades as Shadow threw all he had, missing with two. A pain filled scream left her as she flew over my head, and my eyes widened as I turned rapidly and began running towards her as she hit the ground.

"Shit! Yang!" A dark laugh behind me reminded me of my opponent, but I really didn't care right now. I spun on the ball of my foot, gripping my weapon handed as I did so and unnoticing as a faint orange sheen enveloped my right arm. Following through, my halberd flew through the air incredibly rapidly and struck him in the shoulder with a rippling impact of force, sending him flying. I spun again and rushed to Yang, pulling out the swords and tossing them aside. Yang's face was contorted in pain as the last one was pulled out and discarded aside. I frantically looked her over, she was bleeding aura from where she was hit. That's… not going to be recoverable like I previous thought, damnit. She spoke up with a cough.

"Ow… Guess I got a bit too cocky." A weak smile was on her face, which again contorted in pain as she began to stagger to her feet, my hands quickly leaving her as she did so.

"Yang, don't. Who knows how much that actually hurt you in real life?" I spoke worriedly as she stumbled a bit from her wounds and the pain. I began to growl in anger, which was kind of odd considering I hadn't felt truly angry in quite some time, and I hadn't thought I was that close to Yang. Fuck it, trial by combat and shit to deal with later. I began to stand myself as wisps of orange began coming from my body. I turned back to see Shadow had staggered back to his own feet, pulling my halberd from his body and tossing to the ground. To me, he looked entirely too smug for injuring my combat partner. I cracked my neck, reaching deep within my mind and focusing.

"Fuck it. The only person who's going to get hurt is me here, so I really don't care." I used to have an anger problems. Through some not really advisable bastardizing of some mental calming techniques, I essentially put a really tight lock upon my anger and suppressed it. Now however? Now I didn't have to care. A sound almost like that of glass shattering led to an orange glow to begin to emanate from my form, before rapidly expanding outward as I let out my own angry roar comparable to that of Shadow's earlier ones.

**((Cue RWBY Volume 2 OST: Die))**

My vision began to shift as I rose higher, what I now took to by my Aura enveloping me and expanding outward, increasing in size. Shadow had a shocked look upon his face as my aura solidified around me, marking me as an orange golem ten feet tall with massive arms and legs, no head to be seen instead just a torso. Letting out a battle cry, I charged forward and struck the Asura form of my darker self and sent it skidding back along the ground, doubled over. As he looked up, he was met with my fist to his jaw in a powerful uppercut followed by an overhead right hook to his face, sending him stumbling back even closer to the edge. No chance of a cheap cop out, though, as I grabbed him and slammed him into the ground, launching another punch into his torso before tossing him into the air carelessly. As he began to fall, I spun on my construct's left leg and hit him with a powerful kick, sending him even higher into the air as my aura began to compress within myself as I backed away. As he fell, he was met with an outright _pissed off_ Yang Xiao Long pummeling him repeatedly with blows as fast as she could, filling the area around him with fire and spent shells before a final punch sent him flying back.

Back towards me, where I had picked up my halberd and sent my Aura into it. It manifested as a massive axe blade of solid orange, and I swung it at Shadow's incoming form, bisecting him in half vertically before spinning and swinging once more horizontally, leaving him in fourths that began to dissipate into darkness. I dropped my axe as I collapsed to my knees, panting heavily as I rocked back to lay down upon the platform as soon as I caught my breath. Footsteps heralded the approach of Yang who sat down next to me, staring at the bright nebula in the distance that the background had shifted to. She spoke first.

"So… bit of a temper issue?" She didn't seem overly surprised by my outburst, and her voice held a tone of curiosity as she stared out.

I snorted at that. "You could say. My friends had been picked on a time or two when I was younger, and I wasn't very approving. I berserked a time or two, and it took multiple people to hold me back. Wasn't pretty, and I got tired of it pretty damn quick. Probably why _he_ existed." Groaning, I sat up as well so we were sitting side by side staring out from our little platform in the link of our souls. We were both silent for a time, just enjoying the quiet, away from the fast paced battle. Yang suddenly chuckled.

"Qrow's probably gonna pissed that I had to help you kill your inner demon simply so you wouldn't have anger issues like me." My face twisted into a grimace.

"That is a conversation I am _not_ looking forward to when we get out of here. The only good thing about of all this is I can now apparently use Aura. And… that's really the only good thing here honestly, cause that all fucking hurt!" This last part was a shout towards the emptiness, as if my darker self could still hear me. Yang just gave me an odd look, before she seemed to be considering something as I thought about how to get out of here.

"Hey Orion?" I blinked, and turned toward Yang.

"What's up Yang? For the record, I am really sorry-" And I stopped halfway through apologizing for all this, as she kissed me full on the lips. I blinked as she pulled away, a mischievous grin on her face. I just stammered for a second.

"Uh… what?" There was a sparkle of mischief in her eye. Oh this can't be good…

"Now you get to explain to Uncle Qrow about how you kissed one of his nieces." And with that her form glowed bright yellow before shattering, signifying her leaving. Oh that sneaky little-!

I sighed, head drooping down as I began to reach deep into myself, searching for that little spark that I had used just a moment ago. Despite that, I couldn't keep myself from smiling.

"Make that two good things. I unlocked Aura, and got a good friend through combat."

**AN: And done! That was longer than I had expected… I'm happy with it though. Thoughts thoughts thoughts:**

**Skeleton minions: They're the most common mooks I have seen in traditional good vs. evil, and that was essentially what I viewed it as, so yeah skeletons. Rather weak, but that's compared to adventurers. Yang and Ruby obviously tore them through like nothing, but if I had needed to deal with more than I had, I would've been far worse off.**

**Ruby and Yang being epic: Once again, they're Huntresses in training. And like upper tier of that selection as well. I'm a human with no special powers (till the end here), and Shadow was completely unused to what he was doing. He got better at the end though.**

**Swords hurting Yang: Mmm… this one is speculation. We've never actually seen Yang go against a blade, and she tends to outright ignore blunt damage to her person to fuel her Semblance. I'm just going with the fact that they were formed of Aura which allowed them to pierce her Semblance. We shall see in the future…**

**Aura form: Yeah that's probably not going to happen ever again, at least not to that extent of me being becoming massive and stupidly powerful. My idea for my Semblance will be similar, but extremely scaled back. Only able to pull it off here because depths of my soul = reality is a bit more flexible.**

**Yang's kiss: This is not a sign of romantic attraction! For sure. Yet. Eh, I'm still deciding. I see Yang as a very passionate and outgoing person, and that's what she is portrayed, as well as fairly affectionate. The kiss was to a. get me to shut up my apologizing b. simple gratitude for getting angry on her behalf and c. because she wants to see how Qrow reacts when he finds out, because she is a playful person.**

**So yeah, I took great liberties with the fight and all, but wasn't reality per se, so I could get away with it. Also, didn't put in any puns, but that was mainly because I suck at coming up with them, so eh. No grand fight scenes for a while, next we'll have me dealing with the after effects of unlocking my Aura and causing Yang and I to fight within our souls against my darker half, and the beginning of my true adjustment in the world of Remnant! Please review! **


	6. Chapter 6

**RRC: Yeah, this is probably going to be a rather empty little spot from time to time, as I've been updating almost daily. As I spread my updates out more as time goes on we may see more here, but for now emptiness.**

**New land, New friends, New Beginnings**

I blinked as the orange faded from my view, what I had eventually figured out to be my aura. I looked around to see Ruby looking worriedly over myself with Yang sitting nearby and seeming to have come out of it just a second ago herself. Over watching all of us from the opposite couch was Qrow, with his massive scythe resting across the back of it within easy reach if necessary. Arms on his knees, he peered intently at me as Yang began to stretch her limbs. I spoke up before he could ask anything "How long have we been out?"

A quick glance over my shoulder by him, probably to tell the time. "You've been out for two hours in total. Ruby was only out for maybe ten after forcefully jumping in, and you two woke up five minutes after her. I wasn't able to get a clear idea of what had happened from her, something about a giant monster and an army of skeletons. Perhaps you could clear things up?"

He was polite. His tone was neutral. The fact remained that that wasn't a question. It was an order, one I _would_ respond to or face the business end of his weapon. No thanks. I coughed and shifted uncomfortably under his stare. "So… we were partially correct. I can have my aura unlocked, as proven." I paused a moment and concentrated briefly to let orange wisps of power emanate from my arms before letting them die back down. "However, the process was a bit more… convoluted then simply unlocking it. Yang and I were dragged into a shared mindscape of sorts, and after some time talking and exploring it, we eventually found my, for lack of a better term, darker half, the black emotions humans constantly repress. Ruby popped up after we settled the terms for who would have control via combat, she got kicked out halfway through, then Yang and I murdered my darker half."

Yang nodded along at all this, agreeing before scowling. "He was a dirty fighter." I just turned towards her and blinked.

"_I'm _a dirty fighter. Fighting clean and sandbagging your shit gets you hurt and/or killed, and he was "my darkness" of course he was going to fight like a cheap motherfucker." Wait, crap, Ruby was in the room… and looked confused. Qrow meanwhile seemed quite irritated, but once again he was interrupted, thankfully by an inquisitive Ruby. "Uh… what do those words mean?"

Oh hell no, I'm completely passing the buck on this one. And the best way to do that was… "Ask your father. It's a type of thing you can only learn from parents. Long held tradition of humanity regardless of where you are." I was completely spouting bullshit, but she seemed to buy it with a bit of awe in her eyes.

I could see Yang let out a sigh of relief while Qrow, while not pleased, was less tense, probably because I passed the buck to Taiyang and not him. That crisis averted, I turned back to Qrow. "So yeah, essentially we fought, we won, and now I have exclusive ownership of my soul. And I can tap into my aura. And possibly my Semblance, but probably not for a while. What happened on your end?"

Qrow leaned back, now that the worst of it was over. "Yang's aura, and what we can now tell was your own, flared up massively at the end of her speaking the words to unlock one's soul. We couldn't see anything for a moment, Yang herself has a massive amount of Aura at her disposal and it seems you do as well, but once we could see, both of you were unconscious, covered in a thin sheen of your respective Auras. You were connected by what seemed like a globe formed by the melding of your auras. After some time it seemed as if a darkness, similar to that of the Grimm was mixing into the globe, though only a bit. At that point however my beloved niece," Here he glared at Ruby, who eeped and zoomed behind the couch and hid behind me and Yang.

Qrow took a deep breath to calm himself down. "My beloved and soon to be in big trouble niece thought it would be a good idea to inject her aura directly into the globe to try and help you. While according to your story she did, it was incredibly reckless, and I almost panicked when she was forced out before finding out that she was mostly fine, just a bit spent in terms of Aura. A few minutes after, the black of your aura faded away, then the connection brightened before breaking. You two then woke up."

Huh, so it was a literal battle for our souls. Joy. I'm a little worried about what would've happened if I had lost… probably nothing good, but I don't want to dwell on that. I reached an arm stiffly and cracked my neck to get rid of a few kinks before stretching my entire body before pausing as something hit me. I looked down at my legs. My _completely healed_ legs. "What the…"

Qrow seemed to notice, and chuckled. "As I said, Aura is used to heal ourselves. You could heal an injury like that relatively quickly with some simple training on how to apply it. You two were channeling enough aura between you that one of you could have been terminally ill and you would have been the healthiest people alive when you finally ended the connection." I still felt kind of exhausted though… A feeling mirrored by Yang as she groaned and slumped over, stress bleeding from her body. She didn't seem surprised however, and my curious face caused her to speak up.

"Unlocking someone's aura _normally_ is an intensive procedure. What we just did went so far beyond normal I have no idea what to classify it as. Who has an adventure in their _soul_ for Dust's sake? And not even _my own soul_, nooo, it had to be in the soul of someone from a completely different dimension!" Qrow blinked at that.

"Wait, when did you find that out? We hadn't told you before…" Qrow was severely underestimating how much time we had spent. After pointing out that fact and explaining all that we had discussed in a brief summary, he nodded thoughtfully.

"Interesting. It at least saved us some time. I guess we should go back to the original point here however, and that was you staying until you recovered from your injury. As that is no longer necessary…" Ruby stepped in at that point, blurring back around the couch to gesture frantically at me.

"He can still stay here! He has literally nowhere else to go, and he seems like a good person! Besides, Yang and I could teach him how to fight like a Hunter in our spare time!" Wait wait wait what? Oh hell no.

"Ruby, I don't want to be a Hunter. I am in no way shape or form prepared to become one, and I sincerely doubt you'd be able to train me up to being one in your spare time. Besides, so long as I stay within Vale, I shouldn't need to fight right?" To that, not just Ruby, but Qrow, Yang, and _Zwei_ all gave me deadpan looks. Seriously, how smart is that dog? Wait, scratch that, I'm calling bullshit, he shouldn't be giving me that look, he knows barely anything and he's a dog damnit!

Yang was the one to speak this time. "Orion, for the briefly short time I have known you, in the past few hours of you ending up here, you've been attacked by beowolves, injured by said beowolves, and almost died to the darker part of your soul in the process of the supposedly simple procedure of unlocking your Aura. You have the worst luck I have ever seen or heard of, of all time." Oh don't you get started with me!

I turned towards her and pointed a finger accusingly. "Bull! Ruby saved me, and you both helped me, so it wasn't all bad! Hell, you even kissed me!" Yang just seemed highly amused, Ruby was blushing, and… fuck I can't believe I said that. A sudden pressure which I judged to be Killing Intent began to emanate from the opposite couch. I slowly turned back to see Qrow with a tranquil smile on his face, eyes closed, with his scythe in his lap, and a _**MASSIVE AURA OF DOOM SURROUNDING HIM.**_ I gulped.

"I'm sorry, what was that last part?" Fuck. Can't outrun him, he'll now if I lie… wait I have an idea! Probably stupid but it'll buy me time!

"Zwei!" The dog perked up and jumped happily into my lap. Qrow just quirked an eyebrow at that, it's not like the dog would be of any help to me in this situation according to his point of view. I put my most serious face on as I leaned down towards the dog. "Zwei, I will give you a dozen dog treats when I wake up if you knock me out _right now._" He seemed to consider this, before barking an affirmative and jumping to headbutt me in the jaw. _Hard._ I began to fall back, spots forming in my eyes, and my last sight was a stunned Qrow, a horrified Ruby, and a laughing Yang.

_That went better than I expected… Also ow._

I blinked awake some time later, my jaw still a bit sore. I was laying down on the couch, apparently I had been moved. A soft chuckle alerted me to the blond girl sitting in the couch across from me, studying some electrical device. A scroll I think it was called? Regardless, she seemed highly amused, but at least Qrow wasn't there.

"You're awake. Didn't think you'd be out long, but an hour was long enough for you to get lucky it seems and Qrow had to go talk to some of his fellow faculty members. Ruby was worrying over you for the first ten minutes, until I told her I'd keep an eye on you. After that she had wandered off to her room with Zwei, probably to do maintenance on Crescent Rose since she used it earlier. How are you feeling?"

I groaned, sitting up and rolling my shoulders. "A bit stiff, and my jaw aches a little. That dog of yours hits FAR harder than he has any right to, you know that?"

Yang shrugged at this, collapsing her scroll and pocketing it. "Dad wanted to make sure that Ruby and I would be protected while he was out on missions and Uncle had his own job, so Zwei was our guardian of sorts. He was supposed to buy us time to get a hold of help if something bad happened."

I nodded. It made sense. From what I could remember, Yang had almost been killed when she was younger, so having someone, or I guess in this case some animal, watching over them was a massive worry for Taiyang, especially considering how reckless the sisters are. I spoke up again as I arched my back to stretch, turning my body to face her. "So, what's the plan? Am I staying here or I do need to find someplace that'll put up a bum for a bit?"

Yang shook her head. "No, you'll be staying with us, at the very least until you get a job. You can help pay rent if you want to keep staying after that, we have a guest room. In the meantime, however, we will be training you to at least survive. Uncle Qrow will help teach you aura when he's not at school, I'll be teaching you hand-to-hand myself, and decent odds that Ruby will be making you a weapon. You may not have noticed, but she paid close attention to you when we were trapped in that little 'war of the souls'."

I groaned, both at her final words and at the mention of training. Leaning forward, I placed my face in my hands. "I thought I said earlier, I'm not going to train to be a Hunter. I have no wish to at all, and it sounds fairly dangerous."

I heard movement and looked up in time to see Yang plop down next to me, leaning back on the couch. "And you're not. However, bad luck seems to follow you as much as good, and we invested a lot into saving you once, we really don't want to have to do so again. Look at it more as precautionary measures than Hunter training if it bothers you that much."

I grumbled, palming my face again. "Stupid rotten luck… I don't really have a choice do I?"

"Nope. Besides, look at this way. It'll be fun!"

I deadpanned towards her. "Right, fun when Ruby is obsessing over the perfect weapon for me, Qrow will be killing me with death glares while teaching me, and you'll be beating the crap out of me."

Yang threw her head back and laughed. "Oh relax, I'll be nice. And Qrow won't death glare you, I talked to him while you were out and explained that I kissed you and you didn't reciprocate. I'm kinda hurt you didn't though, I thought you said I was hot?" Oh she wants to play like that then?

"Well, little sun, I was terribly shocked last time you did it. I assure you next time I will fully reciprocate in kind when you attempt to make out with me." She wasn't expecting that calmly delivered line, judging by the sudden blush on her face. I threw my head back and roared with laughter as she, thankfully lightly, punched me in the shoulder.

"Sh-shut up! That was adrenaline letdown, I wasn't in my right mind!" Too bad Xiao Long, you pushed me first!

"I'm hurt, you claim insanity when you kiss me? I'm all depressed again now." I snickered as I said this while she glared at me, her eyes slightly taking a red tint. Whoops, right, still a touch young, that's enough of that. I raised my hands defensively. "Peace, peace! I don't need to try and deal with an angry Yang!"

She huffed before smiling and standing. She gestured at me to follow her and I did so, walking down a hallway. We passed by two rooms, one with the door open to show Ruby bent over some paper with a pencil in hand, sketching furiously. Zwei was curled up on her bed, snoozing peacefully. The other room was closed, but a painted flame made me guess it was Yang's. Finally we reached another room that Yang pushed open. It was rather spartan, only holding a dresser, a bed, a little end table with a lamp right next to the bed, and an empty closet. Still, plenty of room. She gestured around it as I walked in, taking a seat on the bed as she turned to me.

"Well, this will be your room while you stay here. It isn't much, but you were a bit of an unexpected guest-turned-friend."

I shook my head. "It's fine. Despite my little hour nap, I'm still a bit tired, probably from first using aura and expending as much as I apparently did."

She nodded at that, heading for the door. "It's also rather late, so you should get some sleep. Tomorrow is the first day of the weekend, so I'll head out with you and we'll see if we can't find you a job." At that, she gave a parting wave before exiting, closing the door behind her.

I kicked off my shoes, turning and rolling into the bed. I closed my eyes, and began to slow my breathing in an attempt to let sleep claim me as quick as it could. I drifted in and out before passing into the realm of sweet unconsciousness.

**AN: And there we are, the end of the first day! Only took me about 15,000 words, but eh, what can you do. No real specific thoughts this time, just a bit of a finishing touch. Next chapter I'll be heading out into Vale with the girls in an attempt to find a job! Along the way I get to see discrimination first hand of the faunus, and I already know I won't be quiet about what I see. I might also run into another member or two of the cast, we'll see if I can come up with a good excuse and who may be a good person to run in to as of now. Till next time readers, please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**RRC: I got nothing. Next time.**

**The City of Vale (AKA Where Orion loses his temper, again.)**

I blinked as sunlight blasted into my face. Groaning, I sat up in the bed, rubbing my eyes, and quietly cursing under my breath at the sun. Looking around, I sighed, my hope of seeing my apartment with my roommates dashed.

_Well, I could hope it was all just an elaborate dream. Vain hope though…_

I clambered out of bed, my feet lightly stepping onto the floor. Stretching my arms, I focused and listened for any sounds of the house. Aside from the tick of a clock in my room I could see on the nightstand that I hadn't noticed before, nothing. It was dead quiet. Hmm… that seemed odd for their personalities. I opened the door and quietly stepped out, casting a quick glance back at the clock. 7 am huh? I can work with that. Yawning, I slowly walked down the hallway, focusing mainly on my hearing to listen for any sign of people before I could see them. When I finally got to the kitchen, I was greeted by a snoozing Zwei in front of the fridge and a note taped to said fridge. Shrugging, I approached it and took the note off, alerting Zwei to my presence who barked happily and rubbed against me. Still reading, I walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, absentmindedly petting Zwei as he hopped into my lap.

_Orion_

_Gone off with Uncle Qrow to shop for groceries. Be back at around 7:30. Left Zwei to watch over you. Try to stay of trouble for the short time we'll be gone. Qrow also said that he'll be heading out to a meeting with some old friends today before he has to go back to work tomorrow, school for Ruby and I then too. That gives us today to go together and find you a place to work. See you soon!_

_-Yang_

I snorted at the Zwei watching over me comment. True though, as that dog was tough. Petting the happily panting dog, I looked around. Hmm… no idea how to work any of the electronics, I like not being castrated so no going into the girls's room, no going into Taiyang's because I'm fairly sure that'll end badly, mine is sparse… I look down at the dog who looked up with a happy grin.

"So, want to show me the backyard?" "Arf!"

With that he hopped off and started trotting towards the door. Guess that's a yes. I got up and followed him, leaving the note on the table. How to kill half an hour of time….

* * *

"Orion! If you're not up already I will personally drag you out of bed!" Well, seems like they returned. And that would be Yang's voice and speaking patterns. I called out to them from where I was in the backyard, Zwei barking happily but not moving from his postion.

"I'm out back folks! You have a nice little area out here."

I could hear movement in the house, probably them setting down groceries. A few rose petals popped in my view through the window, probably Ruby rushing out to grab more. Meanwhile, the door opened, with Yang coming out to greet me.

"Yeah, it's a nice little area for Ruby and I to spar from time to- what are you doing and where's your shirt?"

I just chuckled, not stopping as I continued doing pushups with Zwei sitting happily on my back. I was indeed shirtless, as it was the only one I had and I didn't feel like messing it up. I had been first stretching my body, making sure I still had full range of movement from yesterday, before moving on to some basic exercises, situps, pushups. Zwei felt like challenging me when I got to the latter, however, and hopped up before I even started my first. Still, he wasn't exactly heavy.

"I have no idea how to use your electronics, and I needed to kill the time somehow. Zwei's awesome, but not much of a conversationalist." A bark next to my head seemed to try and belay that. Finishing my set, I turned my head back and deadpanned towards him. "Yes, I can guess what you can say, but that's not actually knowing what you want, is it? Now off. Go spoil Ruby since she's home." Another happy bark as he hopped off and charged into the house, allowing me to stand up and brush some dirt off, uncaring that I was shirtless. Yang was giving me an appraising look as I walked over and picked it up, not putting it on though.

"Not bad. I'm surprised, you're more than someone who got lucky." I just chuckled, walking past her towards the house, beckoning her to follow.

"I try to keep myself in shape. And unfortunately I have been in a few fights. Mainly people who were picking on my friends. So there was still luck, as that doesn't really apply to a bunch of beasts trying to eat me." Yang shrugged, seeming to agree as we entered the house. Ruby greeted me eyes closed as Zwei was in her arms licking her face.

"Hi Orion! How are you feelin- GAAAAH!" She immediately dropped Zwei and zoomed out of the kitchen in a blur, her face a beet red. "WHY ARE YOU NOT WEARING A SHIRT?" I gave a bark of laughter as Yang chuckled next to me. Qrow, sitting at the table, just seemed amused.

I called back to her "Because I would only get it even more dirty if I put it back on!" I could hear her grumbling as I turned towards her uncle. "Speaking of, Yang hasn't shown me where the bathroom is. I'd like to take a shower before I go job hunting, clean up from everything that has happened since I got here."

A calm nod was my reply as Yang seemed to bounce on her feet in excitement. "Of course. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go along with you, as I have a meeting with some old friends, but Ruby and Yang should be plenty of company, and they know the city quite well. On that note, I'll be heading out. Yang'll show you to the bathroom." With that said, he rose, gave me and his niece a polite nod, and walked out the door, presumably to his car. After that, Yang grabbed my arm and pulled me away towards where I assumed the bathroom was. As we passed, Ruby was still hiding behind the couch. I snorted before gesturing to Yang to hold up a moment. Walking over, I leaned on the couch to look over at Ruby.

"You do know that, as a Huntress, there may be times in the field where you won't be able to react like this to the human body, naked or otherwise? Sometimes you may have to strip someone in order to properly treat them. I don't expect you to desensitize yourself in a matter of minutes, but something to keep in mind for the future." Indeed, she seemed to already be considering the merit of those words, her blush fading a bit as she gained a focused expression. Nodding to myself, I rose and walked back to Yang, who seemed surprised. She gestured for me to keep following before we stopped before the bathroom. She stopped me before I went in however.

"That was pretty wise, you know, especially for someone nearly our age who ISN'T a Hunter or Huntress in training. Something you're not telling boyo?" Hmm… how to play this… oh this'll be funny. I let my shoulders fall, before advancing towards the door, checking it for a lock. It had one, this is going to be funny. I turned back towards her, grabbing the door.

"In a manner. That's common sense, and I had a touch of military training a few years ago. Never actually personally had to deal with something like that, but it popped up before. Not too terribly hard, we had the internet, and very few restrictions. So, I hate to say it but…" At this I looked her appraisingly up and down, very slowly, before settling on her face, a smirk on my face. She tilted her head quizzically at me. "I've seen better." At that point, as her expression began to morph from confusion to shock, I slammed the door and locked it. Not a moment too soon, as almost immediately after there was an unholy shriek of rage as she attempted to turn the door knob, only for growling to emanate from the other side as she found it locked. Chuckling, I turned away from the door to go about my business.

* * *

Ah, that was better. Clean and fully dressed again, I left the bathroom to find Ruby and Yang sitting in the living room. Ruby was happily playing with Zwei while Yang was watching the TV. On my approach, they both turned, Ruby beginning to bounce in excitement, while Yang glared at me. Hah, still worth it, especially since she almost got me in trouble with Qrow. I spoke up as I approached.

"So, we heading out now? I'd like to try and get a job before the two of you head to school tomorrow if at all possible." Ruby immediately got up, as did Yang, who didn't stop glaring at me. Meh, she'll get over it. Ruby bonded over and began dragging me to the door.

"Sure sure, let's go! Our first mission, find Orion a job while he entertains us with stories of heroes in another world!" Heh, really? Guess she really does love her heroes. Luckily for her, I had a passing interest myself, and at the very least I could tell her a couple. Hmm… her age, mindset, and obsession with wanting to be a heroine… let's go with a Disney one. Actually, I just watched one recently… and good wins against nonhuman beasties. Oh I think Ruby will enjoy this one. As we walked out the door to start our walk towards the city, Qrow's car gone, I let a smile slip onto my face as we walked.

"Alright then, I've got one to start you with. This is a tale of a young man born of a certain pantheon of gods. He had great strength, and a courageous heart that allowed him to stand against monsters and a scheming manipulator who wished to take over their heaven. His name was Hercules…"

"… And so Hercules, a bit more powerful and a bit more skilled under the direction of his mentor Philoctetes, set off for the city of Thebes with his faithful Pegasus and his mentor to search for deeds he could do to become recognized as a True Hero and ascend to the realm of the gods to join his father and mother."

One skill I take absolute pride in is my ability to tell a story. I've found that I'm quite good at captivating an audience with my words, knowing when to change my inflection, the volume, and what gestures would accompany it well. Ruby was enraptured as I spoke, and Yang herself had lost her glare and was listening intently. Hah, I've still got it. Around us people walking by gave an interested glance. I suppose the three of us looked a bit odd: Yang and Ruby looked nothing alike, and my manner of dress set me apart from the people around us anyway. Oh well. Sadly not paying to where she was going, it was inevitable that Ruby would walk into someone and cause both of them to fall over with a startled sound. I sighed, cutting off my story as I didn't notice the person either. I reached down an arm as Yang helped Ruby up to myself help up the person that Ruby had knocked over, a young woman who seemed a bit older than Yang dressed in various browns… with rabbit ears. Oh right, Faunus.

"Are you alright miss?" Bah, best to be pleasant. She didn't seem a bad sort, a bit timid from her expression, but nothing bad. She accepted my hand after a pause and rose to her feet, brushing herself off.

"I- yes, I'm alright, thank you. It was my fault for not watching where I was going, I'm so sorry." Now we can't have that. I shook my head at her words, giving her a curious tilt.

"It was mine and Ruby's as well, Ruby's for not paying attention, and my own for distracting her and not paying attention to our surroundings myself. My name is Orion, the one who knocked you over is Ruby, and the blond who helped her up is Yang. May I have your name?" Whoo for meeting people, I need friends! And again, she didn't seem bad. She seemed surprised that someone was treating her kindly, which made me growl in the back of my mind, before she took my offered hand again and shook it.

"My name is Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina. I'm a student at Beacon." As those words left her mouth, Ruby in a blur of rose petals had appeared in front of her with stars in her eyes. Velvet stepped back, surprised at the sudden motion. "Umm…"

"You're a student at Beacon? That's where I want to go to learn how to be a Huntress! Would you mind telling me about it please?" And Velvet soon caved to Ruby's cuteness and pleading eyes, which wasn't terribly surprising, as I'm fairly sure anyone would, and soon began speaking about her time with her team, CFVY apparently pronounced coffee and the teachers at Beacon. That's where I recognized her from, she was a second year at Beacon during the story! And she got bullied by Cardin… Riiight. Well, that'll be something to keep in mind. Yang asked a few questions herself of the rabbit Faunus, but mostly let Ruby do the talking, which it seemed the girl was quite willing to answer and pleased that someone was being friendly. Damn, was discrimination that bad? A shout from further down the street made me consider that, as Velvet seemed to recognize it and turned around in fright.

Down the street, three "thug" looking characters advanced on us, with a glare at Velvet. I quite calmly stepped past her and in front of her as Yang did the same with Ruby, crossing her arms and letting Ember Celica be emphasized as I kept my hands in my pocket, knife in my hand. The three stopped before us, scowling at us. The apparent leader spoke up.

"Heh, what have we here… an animal and a couple of animal lovers!" Velvet seemed to step back at this, but Ruby was at her side and was speaking to her quietly as Yang began to glare at the three idiots. "I don't suppose you'd happen to be willing to let the three of us _talk_ with our _friend_ here would you?" Ok, no, that's not going to stand. My stance shifted a touch as I tilted my head to the side, keeping my expression neutral.

"Hmm… I wonder myself. I suppose it depends on what you want to talk to her about." The thug just smirked at me while the other two chuckled darkly.

"Oh, just some money she happens to owe us. It's the time of the week that the animal there pays us to not report her for her crimes, such as an accusation of taking my wallet, like we should as proper citizens. Don't you agree?" … OK, no, while I know the government was a bit laissex faire about the faunus and their treatment, I sincerely doubt that they'd accept that. However, Velvet probably would worry too much about troubling people she'd probably just do as they said. Yeah… this isn't happening. I slowly cracked my neck from one side to the other as my hands withdrew from my pockets.

"Oh, perhaps. Before I step away however, is that the wallet you spoke of on the ground behind you?" The idiot, not even bothering to check his pocket, spun immediately to look at where I pointed. However, upon only seeing people and nothing on the ground, he turned back to me with an angry expression on his face that morphed rapidly into pain as my right fist, encased in orange, crashed into it and sent him flying back down the street. The other two gaped as he skidded a bit on the ground on his back, blood flying from his broken nose as I drew my arm back and looked at it curiously. Apparently my Aura will activate at strong emotions, such as anger. Good to know. The other two turned back with angry looks on their faces before stepping back as Yang stepped up, Ember Celica fully weaponized and out while behind me I could hear Ruby angrily unfolding her scythe.

I stepped forward calmly, my tone even as I spoke. "I believe that this shall serve as enough of a lesson today. So, here's what's going to happen, unless you want me to let the two ladies tear into you for mistreating a woman, you're going to pick up your buddy, and you're going to go somewhere not here. If I ever hear of you mistreating my friend in any way again, I will personally find out where you live and **castrate you with a RUSTY SPOON! AM I CLEAR?!"** At the end, my voice began to raise before I was almost screaming at them, a note of command slipping into it. The one on the left, who I dub as 'dumber' and the first one 'dumb' stepped forward despite his fear.

"She's just an animal, not even fully human! You got no right to-**GAAAHAAHAAA!"** I stopped him there with a swift quick to his groin that he didn't even see coming. He stumbled back as my foot retracted, his face a rictor of pain. I cast my eyes at the third, who seemed completely terrified.

"You wouldn't happen to have the same opinion now would you?" He shook his head rapidly, gulping. "Good. I'd hate to have inconvenience the local doctors by having them attempt to cure your stupidity while fixing everything else that may happen to you _accidentally_ while I'm teaching a lesson here. You may want to take your friends and be somewhere else." He hesitated, so I stood up to my fully height with my shoulders back. "**NOW!"** At that he scrambled away, the first having already gotten up and both were helping the one I kicked to get away faster. I sighed, turning back to Velvet, who seemed awed that someone would stand up for her. She hesitated a moment before stepping forward, ears a bit drooped.

"You don't… you don't care that I have these? That I'm a faunus?" Yeah, the discrimination is going to outright piss me off here, I just know it. Well, we'll see what I can do to help belay that. I took a deep breath to calm myself down, the sisters sheathing and/or collapsing their weapons. Opening my eyes, I looked hard at Velvet.

"Miss Scarlatina, I don't see a faunus. I see a young woman, no different from Ruby or Yang. And I _despise_ those who mistreat women of any sort." She blinked, perking up a little at my words. I gestured down the street. "If you have some spare time, we would love if you accompany us. I'm trying to find a job for myself, but I wonder how successful that will be if many shopkeepers keep the same view as the three stooges there."

She seemed to think for a moment, before speaking up. "I wouldn't mind joining you, Ruby seems really interested about where I'm attending. Actually, if you're looking for a job where the salesman don't mistreat faunus, I might have an idea." Her ears were up fully, as she considered her thought and joining some newfound friends.

I nodded at this, relaxing a bit. "That would be wonderful, Miss Scarlatina." We began to walk as she directed us towards the place she had in mind, before a thought occurred to me. No one had told me about faunus… "If you don't mind though…" Her head cocked curiously towards me, Ruby pausing in her questions to look at me as well. "What's a faunus?" At that she stumbled, although Ruby and Yang facepalmed in realization. Velvet just stared.

"What-you… Where on Remnant have you been living that you don't know what a faunus is?" She seemed completely shocked out of her personality. I laughed as we resumed walking, her expression and reaction I found to be highly amusing.

"Somewhere quite remote I assure you, Miss Scarlatina."

_So remote and distant you wouldn't believe it if I told you, Velvet. At least there's an upside to bumping into her like this._

**AN: And there we are, chapter complete. Wherein I meet Velvet, the rabbit faunus that everyone loves, and convince a trio of thugs to back off. I figure that Velvet wouldn't protest any accusations against her too terribly, judging by her hesitance to admit being discriminated against and the constant bullying that CRDL got away with, so could easily be coerced out of her money. I disapprove heartily of discrimination of any manner, Yang has already been stated to sympathize with faunus, and Ruby would also disapprove heartily of mistreatment like that. They both drew weapons because it was the quickest way to discourage them. Hmm… thoughts:**

**Emotion links to Aura: This is incredibly simplistic, and I'll actually expound on this later. But yeah, heightened emotions lead to more Aura/Semblance use, even unconsciously. More on that later.**

**Using Disney Hercules: This is mainly because I watched it recently, don't know the original story too terribly well, and because I figured Ruby would enjoy this version far more, as she is still a fourteen year old child.**

**For all intents and purposes, Velvet is a first year, as we don't know her exact age and year of schooling. That should be everything for now, please review dear readers!**


	8. Chapter 8

**RRC: My response to my reader's thoughts! Those that they tell me… I can't read minds, give me the written word and I shall in turn respond via the written word!**

**Velvet: She was quite honestly the first person I could think of that would be able to help me with the job thing this chapter, due to her personality as being rather timid and being a faunus. So… That's why she's popped up. We'll be seeing more of her over the year due to Ruby and Yang being outgoing and inquisitive about Beacon, and I myself will interact with her from time to time. As for relationships… STILL UNDECIDED. DEAL WITH IT.**

**Discrimination is bad, M'kay?**

"So all faunus have radically improved night vision. Along with that, you're generally a bit stronger and faster physically, and depending on whatever faunus type you happen to be, you have extra traits as well?" After my startling, to her, question, Velvet was quick to inform me of what a faunus actually was, with interjection from the sisters on occasion to help her out. She seemed a bit more comfortable now that she actually knew us and knew we didn't care about her heritage. Go figure.

"Yes, that's correct. For example, I have sharper hearing, and drastically increased leg strength compared to a human of the same build as me." Velvet was very polite, even when she wasn't being timid, and while not prone to boasting, these were essentially just raw facts about her from her heritage. And I did ask, so it wasn't boasting but answering a question. It makes sense though, being a rabbit faunus and all. I hummed in thought as Velvet lead me and my companions to a possible lead for a job, Yang and Ruby going back to question Velvet about her team.

There's a thought. Velvet is pretty polite, and if my… currently vauge memories are anything, she and her team were absolute monsters when they pulled RWBY out of the fire in the last episode I had seen. So why would she allow bullying done to her? Maybe because she feels it'd be better if she didn't? There are some people who believe that violence isn't an answer if at all possible, though Grimm would be an exclusion to that, so maybe… I tuned back in to listen to Velvet speak about one of her team members.

".. and she has an amazing amount of strength; it doesn't seem like it, but she carries around this purse that unfolds into a minigun that easily clears an area." Coco, then, as the other two whose names escape me both used blades. I inclined my head towards her as we passed a curious little shop, _From Dust Till Dawn._ Another question to ask, but later.

"Miss Scarlatina, would you mind if I asked a few things again?" I came to a stop and that brought the others to a halt, all of them looking at me quizzically. Velvet did nod however, so I continued. "You're a student of Beacon, aren't you?" Another nod. "So may I ask why those three were able to trouble you? I could have beaten them by myself, to say nothing of Ruby or Yang, who are training to get _into_ Beacon themselves. I sincerely doubt that you would have any issues if they attempted any sort of violence, so why would you let them treat you that way?"

Velvet's ears drooped as she seemed to retreat into herself. "Uh, well, I don't really like violence and I don't like to upset people in any way, so I just sort of let them do as they like. It's not anything too bad, and they never really got much money from me anyway, so it wasn't too much of a bother." I shook my head, disgusted at the treatment she received. Let's see if a few words cause her to think.

"Ok then, here's another one: I'm going to guess that like most people, you want to become a Huntress to as to protect and help people, correct?" Another nod, her ears and expression perking back up at the thought. "Is it really helping anyone, then, if you simply stand by and let people mistreat you due to your heritage?" This time I was met with three confused faces, which caused me to sigh. I suppose it's story time again.

"Alright, so, humans and animals respond to positive and negative reinforcement to encourage or discourage their actions. For a simple example, spray a dog with water if he gets on the table enough times, he'll know not to get on the table. Make sense?" A trio of nods from my listeners. "Well, that applies to humans as well. It's what law and order is based on: punishment for criminal acts serve as negative reinforcement. However, if that reinforcement isn't there, nothing will really bring them to stop. So, if people mistreat you, with nothing to discourage them, they'll come to think it's perfectly normal and fine to mistreat someone simply because they're a little different. So they'll mistreat other faunus, simply because nothing stopped them from doing so to you." There were looks of thought on the girls' faces, so I finished my line of thinking.

"Well, wouldn't it help people if you discouraged such treatment, thus preventing it ahead of time and making their life a little bit easier?" Ruby seemed to nod at this unthinkingly, Yang herself seemed to agree, while Velvet stayed deep in thought. I waved my hand at her, snapping her out of it. "Just something to think about, that it might help people if you stand up for yourself from time to time. I'm not saying forcefully discourage them, unless they use force first, in which case feel free, because anyone stupid enough to mess with a Huntress-in-Training deserves what they get, but people are less inclined to try and bully someone who stands up for themselves, as most people aren't really that confrontational deep down." I gestured down the street.

"Sorry, that was a little long-winded, are we close to where you wanted to bring us?" Velvet almost visibly shook herself from her thoughts, looking around the area.

"It's not far, only a few more blocks. I recognize the area." At her words, we started walking again. As we walked, she seemed to come to a decision and spoke up once more. "Orion…" I inclined my head to indicate I was listening. "You seem quite… passionate about discrimination, especially for someone who has never heard of or ever met a faunus until now. Why is that?" I sighed as we all turned a corner, Yang and Ruby having an inquisitive look in their eyes.

"That's… a question with a somewhat complex answer. For now, let's just say that I don't like pointless actions, and I see discrimination due to minor differences, especially when you have an enemy at your door, as pointless actions." They were still curious, but could tell it was something that I didn't want to talk about now, so they let it drop, although I'm sure Yang would bring it up again, due to the intense curiosity in her eyes. Ruby… would probably want to, but I'm fairly sure it'll slip her mind. Thankfully, Velvet finally led us to our destination. A quick check at the name almost made me laugh as we enter, causing a bell at the door to sound, signifying our entrance. A voice called out from the back, behind a set of doors that seemed to lead to an office-like area.

"I'll be with you in one moment!" Yang and Ruby both wandered over to the comic section and began to browse it while Velvet approached the counter, gesturing me to follow her, so I did. As we approached, the office door opened and a man stepped out. He wore a beige shirt with black accents and black pants, and a white undershirt underneath. He stepped up to the counter, gesturing magnanimously around the store.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun!" He then blinked, registering who exactly was in front of him. "Miss Velvet? It's a pleasure to see you again. What can I do for you and your friends today?" Well, he was at least polite and professional. That's a good thing, and promising. Velvet stepped forward nervously, ignoring the sounds of Ruby and Yang glancing through Tukson's comic collection.

"Ah, hello Mr. Tukson. This is my friend Orion." I gave him a curt nod which he returned in kind. "He recently arrived in Vale, and has been trying to find a job. However, he refuses to work anywhere with even the slightest bit of discrimination against Faunus. I know you're a fair man, and this is a decently sized store to manage yourself, so I thought that maybe you could hire him on?" Tukson seemed to consider it, before leaning on the counter and scrutinizing me. He seemed deep in thought before speaking up.

"It's nice to see someone who is intolerant of the unfairness that faunus suffer instead of perpetuating it or ignoring it for once. I would like to ask a few questions about yourself before I consider hiring you." I nod my agreement to this as Velvet stepped away and began browsing to let the two of us talk in peace, man to man. "What is, in your words, your opinion on faunus and discrimination against them?"

I hum, thinking about how best to phrase my words. "As Velvet said, I despise the fact that they are discriminated against for something of which they have no control. In all honesty, we should be uplifting them: their natural advantages physically make them gifted fighters, if they cultivate it properly, and the Grimm stand ready to destroy us all if given the chance. That instead of doing so the populace mistreat them and make the overall situation worse disgusts me. As for the faunus themselves, I see little difference between them and humans such as myself. We're similar enough genetically from what I understand, and we're both hunted by soulless monsters. I figure that's enough similarities that I can see them as I see anybody else: a person."

Tukson nodded at this, and posed his next question. "Have you heard of the White Fang?" I shook my head, while I did, the other three in the room were not the ones to inform me, I have no wish to garner suspicion towards my knowledge. "They're a pro-faunus revolutionary group that as of late have taken violent and radical actions in order to fight for faunus freedom from discrimination and poor working conditions, such as those propagated by the Schnee Dust Company. How do you feel about the path they are taking now, in comparison to the peaceful protests that they attempted before?" Oh shit, now I remember why Tukson stuck in my mind, he got murdered by Cinder's lackies because he wanted to quit the White Fang… Riiight. Tread carefully.

"While their goals are noble, their current methods are barbaric and useless." A raised eyebrow caused me to hurry to explain myself. "I have little doubt that they are indeed garnering attention and having some effect. However, fear is only a short-term solution to solve a problem. In the future, would they want their kids to do the same as them, just to maintain basic human rights? There should be no need to force that upon later generations. They seem too focused on the now and immediate results. What would be a better course of action would be to climb in status, and calmly convincing those in power of your position and why it should be improved. Don't go after the ones who are mistreating you, go to the ones who write the laws and make it _illegal_ to mistreat you." He nodded at that, his face adopting intense concentration at my words.

"Final question: if I let you work here, would you treat all customers the same, regardless of who they are or their origins?" Question of truth. I shrug at that.

"I can certainly try. If I hear comments of racism, on either side, I'll probably ask them to keep their views to themselves while hear, and any sign of violence in the store will odds are lead me to forcefully ejecting them, but if they are here to shop then I see no need to treat them any different from anyone else."

Tukson nodded. "Alright. As it happens, Miss Velvet was correct, this is a rather large store, and I had recently been considering hiring on help to help me sort books or deal with customers while I am sorting books or scheduling shipments or going out myself to pick up shipments. I'll agree to let you work here, so long as you maintain a polite and professional persona. There is no uniform, though obviously I must ask you to maintain a good standard of appearance, and I'll have you working from 10 to 6 each day, at 100 lien an hour, paid weekly. You'll get Sundays and one other day of your choice off a week, aside from Wednesdays as every Wednesday I have to personally grab books so I'll need someone to watch the shop. Does that sound fair to you Mr. Orion?" He held out his hand. I immediately reached out to grab it.

"I'll take Thursdays, and it's a deal. I'll start tomorrow then?" A handshake sealed it. Yay, I have a job now, and it's at a bookstore! What's not to like? As I released his hand with a grin, I felt an arm lay across my shoulders. Glancing to my left I see Yang cheerfully grinning and hanging on my body.

"Great! Now we can take you clothes shopping!" At those words her grip on me tightened, and she had a damn near predatory expression on her face. I paled rapidly on seeing the sadistic light in her eyes, as well as those in Ruby's and surprisingly Velvet's. I cast a pleading look towards my new boss, who had an amused smile on his face at our antics.

"… Kill me."

"No can do, newbie. I need you alive for at least a week."

"You're a terrible man, and I shall exact vengeance someday for this betrayal."

Yang began leading me out of the store despite my best efforts to struggle out of her grip. "Now don't be like that. You need clothes! And we're nice enough to buy them for you! Aren't you so lucky?"

"Yang. I really don't feel lucky. Don't you have homework or something? I can pick my own clothes, I am a grown ass man, let me go! Why are you so damn strong?" Tukson was chuckling as Velvet was _kind_ enough to open the door for Yang to drag me out, Ruby waving goodbye as she followed me out.

"I punch people. And Grimm. A lot. I need a lot of upper body strength to do that effectively. And to take the recoil from my shot gauntlets." That… sadly makes sense. And is very unfortunate in my situation.

* * *

"Yeah I'm dying your hair pink first chance I get. You are not allowed to choose what I wear. Ever."

So, after a few hours of Yang literally dragging me to various clothing stores, and attempting to dress me and somehow failing despite the fact that I'm perfectly capable of wearing damn near anything without issue, I had managed to acquire a number of pants, pair of socks, boxers and shirts, a sturdy pair of boots and a jacket with multiple pockets, courtesy of Yang and Ruby who I will pay back. After exacting vengeance on the blond one. Who was currently giving me the evil eye with red eyes and hair akin to fire.

"Do it, and I'll break your arms." At that Ruby blurred in between us, laughing nervously.

"Hey hey, we're friends here, no need for arm breaking!" She carefully leaned in closer to me and whispered furiously, "Don't push it, she'll really do it, especially since she knows you can heal yourself!" Hmm, little Red is worried about me. I feel loved. Halfway through our trip Velvet had left, citing that she needed to meet up with her team and head back to Beacon, so it was just the three of us walking on back, me carrying the bags of clothes and wearing my new boots and jacket. We were heading on back to their house so we could put my new stuff away and so Ruby could go back to designing a weapon for me, despite my protests that she didn't need to. Apparently it was half out of concern, and half out of entertainment she was doing so.

I laughed, shrugging my shoulders. "Fine fine, I won't dye Yang's hair pink. I'll just cut it while she's sleeping." At that I had to dodge a decently fast punch from the now enraged blonde, laughing while I did so and dancing out of her reach as she threw a few more.

"YOU ARE SO GOING TO REGRET EVEN THINKING THAT!" Whoops, maybe I pushed her a touch too far? I kept rapidly side-stepping and back-stepping, staying just out of her reach while Ruby sighed at watching us. The fun stopped though when I side-stepped and accidentally ran into someone, nudging them back as Yang punched another who had apparently been just behind me, sending them flying back. Yang looked mortified as I turned around, an apology on my lips…

Only to realize it was the racist bastards from before. With friends. And a few baseball bats. And a golf club, what the hell, there's no way they have room for golf, why does he have a putter? The one I bumped into scowled as his friends aligned next to him, myself stepping back to be just in front of Yang and Ruby, the former looking less mortified upon realized who she had just decked. He stepped up, hands in his pockets.

"Well, if it isn't the animal lover! What happened, she abandoned you to go rejoin her pack?" A few of the group chuckled as I let the bags slip from my hands, stuffing them into my jacket pockets as I relaxed into a loose stance.

"Why racist bastard, my new friend who ran away from a couple of girls and an unarmed man. What, had to outnumber a few nice folks like ourselves 3 to 1?" Actually 4 to 1, it would be 3 to 1 if Velvet was still with us. I dislike these odds, despite the fact that Yang and Ruby would tear into them, I'd really rather not fight. Dumbest, who apparently didn't know when to quit, pulled a knife from his pocket as the others raised their weapons threateningly.

"You cost me money! A decent amount of money, and a source of cheap entertainment for me and my pals."

I raised my right hand and rubbed the back of my neck, tilting my head curiously. "And… I'm supposed to care you dumb son of a whore?" Fuck it, he irritates me, and this was obviously going into a conflict regardless. Dumbest growled, pulling back his knife as I brought my hands upon and pointed behind him. "By the way, my 'animal friend', as you put it? She's right behind you." He spun, believing my words, before turning back and being met with, yet again, my fist to his face while my left hand grabbed his wrist to prevent him from falling to far back. A quick knee to the groin and a blow to his wrist caused him to drop the knife, which I snatched up before kicking him back into his friends, sending a few stumbling back as they caught their leader. I sighed, twirling the knife in my fingers as Yang and Ruby could be heard preparing their weapons behind me.

"Look, you really don't want to do this. They have guns, and training, and you just fell for the same damn trick, again. So, you know, back the hell off, before you get to tell me how many ceiling tiles are in your hospital room." He staggered back to his feet, enraged, as I sighed, knowing how this would end. He roared and gestured his friends forward, who all charged at us yelling battle cries. Goddamnit.

"You dumb hicks just don't get it, we're not outnumbered, you're fucking outmatched!" The first one to get in range swung a bat at me overhead, like an idiot who only knew how to terrify others. I side-stepped and stabbed him in the leg with my stolen knife, sending him to the ground howling in pain and clutching at his wound, dropping the bat to the ground. I snorted and kicked him in the face, sending him back before leaning down and picking up the bat. Hefting it casually as Yang and Ruby darted past me with the sound of gunshots, I brought the bat up and blocked the swing of a putter from a man sneering at me. I just chuckled, which earned me a look of confusion before Yang punched him from behind as I stepped out of the way and let him go flying. Bringing the bat behind me, I swung and struck a man coming at Yang from behind as rolled underneath my blow to be behind me and blocking yet another bat with her gauntlets. Ruby was on the outskirts of our little brawl, picking them off with powerful swings with the blunt side of her scythe as Yang kicked her attacker in the stomach and sent him stumbling back. I sighed as the both of us were back to back and surrounded by four of them as the rest were either down or attempting, and failing horribly, at dealing with the red blur known as Ruby Rose.

"I need some better karma. Cause this right here? Is bullshit."

"You didn't have to provoke them." Don't even start Yang. I brought up my stolen bat with my right hand.

"Yeah… I doubt they would have let us walk away. Recoil?" The man in front of me charged at me, only to get an elbow to the face from Yang as she used the recoil from Ember Celica to send him flying. Spinning, I clubbed the one to my left over the head, or tried to only to get blocked by the last man with the bat, and ended up just kicking him in the knee as Ruby blurred over and slammed her scythe into him with a gunshot, propelling him away from us. I turned to the remaining two only to see them groaning on the ground, Yang clearing the shells from her weapon with a smug smile on her face. I threw away the bat as I walked away, disgusted while Ruby collapsed her scythe and Yang popped up next to me, walking backwards. I cast my eyes towards her as I bent down and picked up my clothes, thankfully unbothered by the brief scuffle.

"You have some incredibly stupid people in Vale. You get scratched?" She shook her head no, while I looked at Ruby who also shook her head, looking worriedly at the thugs scattered around the area. I sighed and walked over to Ruby, who looked at me. "Listen Ruby, don't get too worked up over this. We didn't do anything lethal, and we didn't start this fight. Besides, this way, they're unable to harm anyone else. That makes you a kind of hero, at least in training." She perked up at this, and we resumed our walk home.

* * *

"We're home!" Yang announced our return to the home at large, consisting of Qrow at the table and a happy Zwei running up to Ruby barking and jumping into her arms, giving her cheerful licks while she giggled. I nodded at the man who nodded back as I wandered to my room and tossed the bags in for later unpacking. I walked back and sat down across from Qrow while Yang and Ruby sat down in the remaining two chairs. Qrow turned a page in his book.

"Eventful day?"

"Got a job. Made a new friend who apparently attends Beacon who was nice enough to answer Ruby's endless questions." Ruby blushed lightly at this while Qrow tossed her an amused look. "Got into a bit of a scuffle with some racists. Got new clothes." Qrow frowned.

"What was that?"

"I got new clothes?"

"You got into a fight?"

I sighed, leaning back as Yang stood and began bustling around the kitchen, preparing food for the evening. "I wouldn't call it a fight, as they got tossed around like rag dolls." As he began to glare I raised my hands. "Hey, they started it, and they were attempting to mistreat out new friend, so I laid out the first of them, who came back with friends, who all got beat up. None of us got hurt, and hopefully we taught them something with all this." He sighed, exasperated, while Ruby wandered off to her room with a passing comment on going back to her designs.

"I suppose it's partially my fault for not informing you of the faunus and their… regrettable situation." I just glared at him, causing him to sigh. "While I try my best to stamp out such views at school, I am still just a teacher."

That was my cue to deadpan at him. "A teacher who's also a veteran Hunter, so you're word carries weight." I sighed. "But if that was all that was needed, this situation wouldn't exist, so we'll let it drop for now. My boss won't tolerate discrimination, so at least there's that."

Qrow nodded, and we spent the rest of the time while Yang was cooking chatting amiably about what he taught and the rest of our day out. Yang called out to Ruby when dinner was done, and we all spent the time talking lightly over the food. Bidding the others goodnight, I wandered off to what was now my bedroom and flopped onto the bed.

_Seriously wacky karma. Still, I have a job, and clothes, and a place to stay for now. It's better than nothing, which is roughly what I had when I arrived here._

**AN: Work took time. So… you get a longer chapter, also partially because I just couldn't stop typing. No extra thoughts, and I'll lay off the violence for a while now, I just needed to deal with the discriminatory bastards. Once again, I don't like discrimination, for any reason. That'll pop up later in the story.**

**Up next, we'll see how I interact with Tukson, my customers, and perhaps a special guest from the RWBY cast will make an appearance! (Hint: They have black hair.)**

**Also, while I'm thinking about it: Once again, my writing isn't exactly the best, so if anyone who reads this and actually cares, I'd appreciate a beta who'd be willing to look over my work and check grammar and legibility. So yeah… that offer be there.**

**So please review! Let me know what you think so far! And hey, see if you can toss a few ideas for interactions with the cast over the next year and many chapters to come. I shall listen and take into account your words my readers!**


	9. Chapter 9

**RRC: Yay reviews. Not much help but eh. Responding…**

**Velvet: Quite honestly, it's going to be unlikely. Mainly because I sat down and rewatched all of RWBY, and Yatsuhashi is rather protective of her, could easily see her with him. Yes I am a friend of hers, but romance? Probably not. We'll see though. Now shush about that particular person, if you want to see a Velvet pairing that badly write it yourself.**

** ultima-owner: I'm glad you're enjoying the fic, for whatever reason! While I am writing this mainly to get my thoughts out and organized so I can read again without being bugged relentlessly, I'm putting it up here for the enjoyment of others. So it's nice to know that some people are appreciating it!**

**So as a side note, from this point on I'm just going to ignore reviews saying who I should be paired up and absolutely nothing else but that. My damn fic, and if you keep bugging me about it I'll pair them off with someone else offscreen just to piss you off. Now, if you tell me an idea for a pairing, and then give reasoning for said pairing (not just me, but any pairing within the cast), then I'll listen and respond to it. But just saying "Person A should be with person B" does not help, and is frankly a touch annoying when you **_**keep doing it so STOP DOING IT.**_** *breathes deeply* Simple enough? **

**Now that that little rant is done with… ON WITH THE STORY!**

**Respect for Knowledge**

A pounding on my door woke me up, surprisingly. I guess being here has changed my instincts a little. Groaning, I roll out of bed and stagger to my feet, checking the clock. 730 am. Right then. I wander over to the door, with the person still pounding on it, before grabbing the handle and ripping it open.

"What?!" I'm… not much of a morning person. Ok, that's a bit unfair, I'm not really in a bad mood when I first wake up, but I was rudely woken up, so that's a difference. In front of me was Yang, dressed in her outfit for Signal. She opened her mouth to speak, but then blushed a bright red and spun away from the door. I just raised an eyebrow.

"WHY AREN'T YOU WEARING ANY CLOTHES?"

I blinked. Looked down. Shrugged and looked back at her. "I'm wearing boxers. And if I'm not drop dead exhausted, I sleep in just my boxers, as I'm comfortable that way. Otherwise… I just collapse into bed in whatever I'm wearing. Was there something you needed?"

She refused to turn around, staring at the wall in front of her. "Ruby and I will be heading out now to go to school, Uncle Qrow will be giving us a ride. You start work at ten right? I wanted to make sure you didn't oversleep and be late on your first day since we haven't set an alarm with your clock. Qrow left some lien on the table so you won't starve while you're out today." With that she walked away, purposely not looking at me. I chuckled, closing the door and turning to my bags of clothes I had yet to unpack. Let's see here…

* * *

I yawned, still a bit sleepy, as I stepped out of the shower. I had stored away my clothes aside from what I'd be wearing today and then went straight to the shower, after petting Zwei for a little bit so he'd calm down. Quickly dressing, I wander into my room and grab up my wallet and knife, as well as my jacket. Walking out, Zwei running careful circles around me, I head over to the kitchen where thoughtfully a plate of buttered toast and the aforementioned lien was. I'm going to do something really awesome for these guys when I'm not broke as hell, I truly will. I stuffed the lien into my wallet and quickly ate the provided food, before with one final pat on Zwei's head I left the house and began walking.

Yesterday it took us a decent amount of time to get to Tukson's due to constant interruptions and we weren't really moving with a purpose, plus we had stayed at a slower pace due to conversations we liked to maintain. It took me far less time to actually get to work half an hour early, and I had been pacing myself and not entirely sure where I was going this time. At least this way I now have a better idea of how fast to move and where I'm heading… I walked through the door, triggering the bell and causing my new boss to look up from a terminal at the counter.

"Orion." Tukson paused, glanced at the time. "You're surprisingly early." I shrug, walking up to the counter while looking around and actually paying attention the arrangement of the store.

"I'm still getting accustomed to the area, so I figured I could leave early to make sure I had time to get here despite my lack of knowledge. I'm kinda surprised on how fast I got here myself, but I don't mind. I've always been one who prefers to show up early just in case." Tukson nodded at this, and gestured for me to come around. I did so, and found that he had up a list of books. I looked questioningly at him, not noticing he had that before. He just chuckled.

"I have a photographic memory, which is how I know what books are in stock. I doubt that you do however." I shook my head as he paused and gave me a questioning look. Upon getting an answer, he continued. "I've kept track of my books on here as well, just in case and because it's easier to figure out what books I need to order when I have them listed. I generally don't bother using this aside from the end of the day marking down what's been sold, but I figured that you'd end up using it a lot while working here."

He pressed a few keys to switch the screen between various lists. "I keep the books sorted in here according to genre for which list they're in, and then they're in alphabetical author order within the lists. Prices for the books are marked next to each one in order of new and used, hardback and paperback. Mondays are generally slow days, so I'll show you around the store and indicate where each section is in here, just to help you get it in mind." I nod at this, as he pulled up another list.

"We are a book trade, so we have many people turning in books. For that, we give them store credit equivalent to half the price of what we're selling the book for new if it's in really good condition, otherwise we give them the used price. Some folks bring in a lot and buy little, so they have lingering credit, which you'll keep track of here. Just get their full name and that'll be enough." A few more taps brought up a blank document that I noted was "Books In/Out".

"In here you'll keep track of what books come in from the customers and what books are sold during your shift. For those brought in, mark down their condition next to the book in words you feel appropriate. For those sold, mark down which book was sold." He shrugged. "If you really want to, feel free to keep track of the total amount sold. You don't have to, but it'd make my life a little easier while working with you."

I nod at this. "Sure, shouldn't be too hard to keep track of something like that. Anything else you need to show me?" He considered for a moment.

"Not that I can think of at the moment. Bathroom is over there in the corner-" I blink at that. Bookstore with a bathroom. How odd. Cleverly hidden, too, blends really well. "-and feel free to read any of the books in stock while you're on shift to kill time. Just be willing to hand it over to a customer if they request it. Easy enough?" I nod again, and he smiled, clapping me on the back. "Shouldn't be too much of an issue to get you working. Right then, let's get you acquainted with the store, oh and stay out of the office unless I ask you in, it's generally a mess and I'd prefer if nothing got moved…"

* * *

That wasn't bad. Pretty simple job, all things told, and Tukson was quite polite and helpful with showing me around. Like he said, it was rather slow, and we only had a few customers, so I had plenty of time to learn the store. A brief break at around one let me pick up some lunch before heading back and working with him on making sure I know the lists and how to search them. While this may be something really basic, I haven't at all used Remnant's technology, so I'm extraordinarily grateful that he was willing to teach me. Tukson was rather surprised at my lack of knowledge, though my reply of being from a rather remote village shifted that expression to understanding. Yay for technology!

I returned to… huh. It's odd, but I consider the room I stay in with the sisters and their uncle to be my home now, instead of a house I live in. Rather quick adjustment mentally, but I'll just blame it on how much they've done for me and the type of folks they are. I opened the front door, calling out as I did.

"I'm home!" A reply was shouted from the kitchen by what sounded like Yang, while Zwei ran from Ruby's room to jump up at me. Catching him neatly, I showered attention on the playful dog while carrying him into the kitchen to find Qrow cooking something at the stove while Yang sat at the table, a few bits of what looked like math in front of her along with a textbook. She greeted me cheerfully as I sat down at the table and set Zwei on the floor.

"Yo! Good day at work?"

"Yeah, it was nice. Tukson's a good guy, and the work seems easy. Plus I get to read the store's stock in my spare time working." I nudged Zwei away, who barked and ran off out of the kitchen, presumably to Ruby's room. "Ruby's working on my weapon design despite my many protests, again?"

Yang nodded. "Yep. She's always been rather excitable when it comes to weapons, so there's no way you're going to talk her out of at least designing one. Maybe you'll be able to talk her out of making it, but I see fair odds of her making it simply for proof of concept. Hopefully she won't go overboard making it for you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Overboard?" Yang nodded, unfolding her gauntlets from around her wrists.

"Most people have rather simplistic weapons, despite their collapsible designs, and have somewhat simple combat styles. Ember Celica here is a good example, covering my hands and providing me with bracers to block with and a close to mid-range gun. Ruby… went a touch overkill with Crescent Rose, making it a scythe with a sniper attachment that can also shift into just a gun. Admittedly outright close quarters combat is difficult with it, but it tends to scare people from getting in that close, and Ruby's fast enough to use the range of her weapon effectively, especially with her Semblance."

I blinked. "Right, those unique skills each person has associated with their aura. Hers is speed then? No surprise, I remember her damn near teleporting across the battlefield during my aura incident." At that point Qrow chose to calmly interject into our conversation, turning to look at me.

"Speaking of aura, after we eat tonight I'll be giving you a bit of a lesson it. As I understand you have Thursdays and Sundays off, you'll spend those days sparring with Ruby and Yang, after we make sure you can use your Aura to heal and protect yourself. Speaking of Ruby, would you mind letting her know dinner will be ready soon?" I nod, standing up quickly as Yang began gathering her school things together. I wandered off and found Ruby hunched over her desk, headphones on and I could hear them from here. Hmm, Red like Roses, part II. Nice. I walk over and tap her on the shoulder.

"Gaah!" Yeah, her awareness sucks with those on. She spins in her chair after jumping and notices me, and immediately takes off her headphones. "Oh. Hey Orion! How was your day?"

I wander over to look at what she was working on. "It went well. So this is the start of your concept of my weapon, which seriously, you guys have done enough, no need for this." She waved off my comment.

"Psha, any Hunter or Huntress would have done the same. And yeah, I remember you fighting, so I started designing this. I'll have to watch you when you start sparring with me and Yang though, just to see how your body moves without a weapon so I can figure out how big the collapsed form can be."

I sigh. "Seems I won't be able to talk you out of this will I?"

"Nope."

"Well, at the very least, would you at least listen to my input on what I would use? No point in making something I can't or will be bad at using." She immediately nodded, hopping up from her chair.

"Well duh! The final product won't be made until I get your advice on it." Well, I might as well make the best of it. I then remember that I came back here for a reason.

"I'll write a few things down tomorrow at work. Oh, Qrow asked me to come grab you because dinner will be ready soon." She eeped upon hearing her stomach grumble and blurred away, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake. I chuckle, following her at a more sedate pace back to the kitchen.

* * *

"Alright Orion, for today we'll start you with just being able to access your Aura. Before we do, have you used it unconsciously at all?" I consider what Qrow asked afterwards. The two of us were in the backyard, Yang watching on silently with Zwei sitting patiently next to her. Ruby had gone back to her room to work on actual homework, stating that she'll refrain from weapon designing until after I pass her some input.

"Once- no, twice, technically." The Hunter raised an eyebrow. "The second time was during our first little scuffle yesterday, when we met Velvet. I was a bit angry, so I struck the man hard to persuade him to leave her alone. I sent him flying far farther than I should have, and I noticed my arm was covered in an orange glow. The first time I don't know if it counts, but during the incident to unlock my aura it encompassed me and surrounded me almost like a gigantic suit of armor. It gave me massive strength and a decent speed increase that let me set up the finishing blow to take out my darkness with Yang's help. Oh, and I also channeled it into to my weapon of the time for two massive slashes to end it. I attributed that to mindscape shenanigans though."

Qrow nodded at that, crossing his arms and relaxing in an easy stance in front of me. "Both times, I assume you were feeling some rather intense emotion, yes?" At my nod, he continued. "Aura is, as mentioned before, the manifestation of our soul. All living beings, aside from the Grimm, have it. Humans and faunus are able to actively utilize it, most often by channeling it through our weapons. It is easier for many to use their aura in tie with their emotions, though this is inadvisable to veteran combatants as we are trained more to not let our emotions control us in the midst of a life or death situation. An easy example would be Yang." She waved over at us at that. "When she grows angry or frustrated, her Semblance will kick in, multiplying her strength by several degrees and causing fire to come from her, as bleed off of how much raw power she is giving off. This is most notable if she has been fighting for a long period of time, as the more hits she takes, the more her power multiplies. Sadly, as it is tied to an emotion, she tends to lose herself to her anger and frustration with the use of it."

Qrow gestured for me to sit and I did so. "For now, we're going to see if you're able to draw it out without being overly stressed. Try and reach down into yourself, and draw upon what you find." I closed my eyes at his words, and felt within myself. I've always had a rather powerful tactile sense: I feel things easier then I see or hear them. Stretching that awareness inwards, I _felt_ a source within me: something raw, and vast, and comforting. Pyrrha, according to my increasingly vague memory, described it as the sensation of being watched: I felt similar, only instead it was as if there was someone standing over me, almost a silent sentinel. I extended a part of myself, as it were, and investigated into it. I gasped as I felt that power expand and settle within my entire body, almost enshroud my normal senses. Opening my eyes, I found my arms covered in a faint orange glow. "Whoa…"

Qrow nodded, looking pleased as Yang clapped from the sidelines, Zwei barking happily. "You have quite the intuition for using Aura. Over time, now that you know the feeling, it should be easier, and quicker, to draw upon it. Let's try something else, see how fast you can learn." He gestured for Yang to come over here, which spurred her to quickly get to her feet and come over. "Yang, I want you to punch Orion in the stomach. Not hard, please, we are teaching, not sparring." He turned towards me as Yang bounced into a boxer's stance. "I want you to gather your aura across your stomach, in an attempt to reinforce yourself from the blow." Nodding, I did as requested, concentrating on gathering the power around me and focusing it at that point. After a moment, I nodded to Yang, who quick-stepped forward and lashed out with a decently quick punch.

**PAIN! **Ok, so apparently I didn't entirely do that right. I stumbled back a few steps, letting out an explosive breath of air and doubling over from the blow. Yang immediately had a worried look and began to step forward, but I waved her off, coughing. While I didn't do the protection part, I could feel the aura that I had gathered there working, relieving me of the pain and I'm supposing healing the rather bruise from that little event.

"I'm ok. I guess I messed up, didn't really block. I can feel my aura working though, so just give me a moment to recover ok?" Nodding she stepped back as I straightened myself, breathing deeply as I felt my aura work. I felt a bit tired, but that was probably due to not being used to it. I considered what I did. Obviously, it wasn't just gathering it, I needed to do something else. Think back, what did I do when I struck with it, when it formed around me? Projected it outward. So maybe… I gathered it together, quickly, and nodded at Yang to strike me again. She raised an eyebrow, but rushed forward and swung…

Only to get stopped by a bright orange glow around my torso that absorbed her blow. She blinked, surprised, and I started to laugh, letting the glow fade. "This is awesome! Wow, no wonder you and Ruby tore through my dark side, if this is what you guys can do."

Qrow chuckled. "What we shall be teaching you how to do, to a degree. Let's see how long you can keep up that shield, and where you can manifest it." Yang gained a sadistic gleam in her eyes as I sighed, raising my arms to cover my head.

"Happy feeling gone now." This is definitely going to be payback for my comment yesterday morning...

* * *

I hummed to myself, turning a page in a book about Dust that Tukson had suggested when I mentioned a friend of mine was heavily into weapon engineering. It's Wednesday, and I was manning the shop alone for now while Tukson went out to pick up a shipment of books. I heard a jingling bell and the door closed rapidly after, revealing a panting young man hiding behind the wall. Past the glass I could see a cheerful girl wearing white with a metal object strapped to her back run by, orange hair bouncing as she seemed to be talking nonstop and disappeared. The young man sighed, slumping to the floor as I bookmarked my page and closed the book for now. He had black hair with a streak of bright magenta on the left side, wearing a green and black shirt with light tan pants. I slowly waved at the young man, who looked up at noticing my presence.

"Welcome… I guess? Dunno if you're here to shop or just need a breather from whoever you were just with, but I'll call you a customer for now. Do you… want me to block the windows so you're less likely to be spotted?" A grateful look was all I received in turn, so with a chuckle I typed a few commands into the terminal on the counter. A moment later the glass opaqued while the lights remained on. An interesting little feature I had noted while exploring yesterday was that you could either block the glass or shut off the lights from the counter, the switches by the front just did both at once to save time. The young man stood, brushing himself off and actually paying attention to where he was. I coughed.

"Ah, should have said it before, but welcome to Tukson's Book Trade! Home to every book under the sun!" At his look I deadpanned. "Tukson's my boss. I'm Orion. How can I help you?"

He approached me, eyes still wandering the store, although he seemed remarkably calm for someone who was only a moment ago panicking. "Ren. Have anything about sloths? It should distract Nora for a time." I blink, considering, before typing a bit into the terminal.

"Aaah… maybe? Let's see… here, it's all we got. 'All About Sloths' really, they couldn't come up with a better name? Fail people." I hummed as I came around the counter and began to search the appropriate shelf for the book, the now-named Ren stepping next to me. "I'm assuming Nora was the girl outside who wandered off? Your girlfriend?" Ren rapidly shook his head.

"Old childhood friend. She's not bad, not really, just sometimes a bit… overwhelming." I hum in thought as I searched for the appropriate book, before finally letting out a quiet noise of celebration and pulling out the book. Turning, I hand it to him and wander back to the counter.

"Understandable. I've had a few over excitable friends myself. Anything else? Since you're here anyway." He looked around the store, magenta eyes slowly appraising its contents.

"Not at the moment, perhaps another time. I have a few old books I've stopped reading, and maybe I could find something interesting here." A quick exchange of lien and a wave later, I untinted the windows as Ren walked out, book in hand as he set out to track down Nora before she did something like wreck a building. Actually, that thought could very well be true, that's rather terrifying to contemplate. Humming, I began typing into the computer the book and money transaction, lost in thought.

Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. Partners and half of Team JNPR, they're longtime friends who are both quite skilled combatants. Ren prefers his martial arts and his weapons, a pair of submachine guns with blades. Nora was extremely strong, wielding her war hammer/grenade launcher to devastating effect. Didn't know they lived in Vale. Useful to know, also as a side note distract Nora early on by introducing her to Yang or Ruby, Yang because of personality compatibly, Ruby because weapons. I opened back up to my page, leaning over the counter.

_Suppose I'll be seeing more of them, if I'm stuck here. Think I'd rather be on their good side then their bad, and at the very least watching Nora terrorize the populace will be entertaining._ Damn, that's a sadistic thought…

**AN: Those of you who expected Blake… Hah, you gullible fools! It'd be far too easy to draw in Blake here, and while I will meet the mysterious cat girl later on, it shan't be now, because I feel like trolling you folks. Yes, Ren and Nora live in Vale, because we have no information to the contrary and I want to do more than just mess with Ruby, Yang, and Tukson. We'll be seeing the childhood friends some more over the next few chapters, and I'll also get around to introducing a few more characters of the cast before actually focusing on who I have introduced here. Notes:**

**1\. Lien: So, I didn't mention before, but I'm converting in my head so that 10 lien = $1. $10 is more than I currently make at my minimum wage job, so I feel it fair for a newbie. Over time I may make more at Tukson's but for now that's survivable.**

**2\. Aura: So… yeah this and how I apply it is mainly off from gut feeling of how I think such a thing would work. Not really going to delve into that for now, mainly because I'm still defining in my head, and we'll see how it goes. Yes it's an info dump in that section, but it is necessary, as Orion/I need to be taught this desperately, and Qrow is a damn good teacher, considering Ruby's prowess. Talent does nothing if not nurtured.**

**3\. My weapon: Ruby is, as stated before, rather infatuated with weapons, and seems to greatly enjoy her own baby, Crescent Rose. Since she gets to know people via weapons first, at least in her head until she gets over her awkwardness in Beacon, I figured it'd be interesting to see how she makes a weapon after getting to know someone. There'll be a few tricks in it, but as stated before it won't be a gun. I'll probably end up picking one up anyway, but don't expect too much.**

**4\. Who won't be encountered: Now obviously, despite the people in RWBY being all in Vale at the same time, a number of them won't be seen until RWBY actually kicks off timeline wise here. They are: Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune, Glynda, Port, Sun, Neptune, Ironwood, Cinder, Roman, Emerald, Mercury, Adam, and Penny. The reasoning for a few of them should be obvious, the remaining unobvious is simply because I want to focus on just a select few characters for now.**

**So, that's this chapter. Next is a spar with Yang, where I get beat like a rag doll, and a visit to Junior's club. Because I enjoy the music, and because he obviously doesn't give too much of a damn about age, considering he has a pair of teenage twins serving as his personal enforcers. No, it's not the Yellow Trailer, that won't be happening for quite some time. It hasn't even been the White Trailer timeline wise. I'll make mention of the events of the White and Black Trailers when they pass, so we'll see them pop up. **

**So please review! And leave me ideas for book names and concepts here if you'd like, I want to use ones that are uncommon here or don't even exist yet for mentioning a few of Tukson's wares.**


	10. Chapter 10

**RRC: I treasure your words, my loyal-ish readers (don't lie, I know you read other works. WHY MUST YOU FORSAKEN ME? Kidding.) Allow me to respond to your words. As a side note, if you write something as a guest, I'll just respond to the topic instead of responding to your name, so keep that in mind if you want to actually be mentioned.**

**CocoXMe: Coco hasn't had much love from what I've seen in fanfiction, has she? I'll certainly attempt to introduce her sometime before the start of the show, and we'll see how that goes. Coco is a far more outgoing person, so better odds of that. Shy people I have to break out of their shell, which takes time. **

** ultima-owner: It is a fairly large shop, hence why it's awesome that Tukson runs that place solo. Granted, the photographic memory I gave him helps, but that's a lot of information to keep track of. Me working full time with the computer aiding me should help ease the stress. **

**Once again, thank you for reviewing. Just knowing your thoughts is helpful. Once more I'd like to ask for any ideas for books to mention to the customers, as that would be greatly appreciated. On with the story.**

**Free Time for a Wanderer**

Dodge, backstep, block, dodge, deflect, attempt a sweep kick!

"Hahaha! Not that easy, Orion! Try a little harder!"

"Screw you Yang, not my fault I lack actual training-ow!" I quickly came to a stand only to get socked in the gut by the blonde brawler and sent flying back to skid across the ground of the backyard with a gasp. I groaned as I just laid there, looking at the clouds above. It's a beautiful day. Suddenly my view of the sky was obscured by lilac eyes blinking down at me.

"You okay?"

"Just… give me a minute. I'm not combat trained like you are, as much of a help Aura is." So saying, I closed my eyes and reached into myself to tap into that inner reserve of energy, sighing as I felt it engulf my body and slowly began to work on my injuries. I heard Yang huff above me and then plop down to sit cross-legged next to me.

"You're not, but you're not doing bad. Even if I am not using Aura or Ember Celica, you're managing to not get too badly injured, which is impressive." I cracked open my eyes and turned my head to look at her, who wasn't even breathing that hard. I knew she was holding back a decent amount, but she seemed surprised that I've only been hit in the torso a few times and took one clean shot to my right arm. Which still stings, damnit that girl can punch.

"It's mainly because I'm actually fairly good at reading body language, and I follow the mantra of 'don't block when you can deflect, don't deflect if you can dodge.' Despite your brutal strength and surprising speed in close, you have a fairly straightforward style of fighting. On the flip side, because of your physical capabilities and extensive training, you can overwhelm most opponents, I'm just really practiced at dodging. Slower people anyway." Yang blinked at that rush of information, surprised at how quickly I broke that down. From the sidelines, Ruby, who was watching our spars IE me getting the shit kicked out of me by a semi-serious Yang while I try to hit back, piped up.

"Ok, seriously, are you sure you don't have combat training? That was rather impressive." I just tilted my head to stare at her.

"Yes I'm sure. Otherwise I wouldn't be getting tossed around like a ragdoll by your sister. And before you start, no, I'm not sparring with you, because that scythe of yours is a little bit terrifying and I have no way to protect it against it. I'm fairly sure your hand-to-hand skills are a bit lacking as well, so it would be unfair to fight you like that, even with your semblance helping you." Ruby pouted at my words, but didn't say anything against it. I dragged myself to my feet, feeling my aura finish it's work as Yang hopped up next to me. "It doesn't help that I'm holding back a lot offensively." At that statement Yang scowled.

"And why, pray tell, are you doing that?" Oh… shit that came out wrong. I backpedalled rapidly from a starting to anger Yang, hands held up defensively.

"We're sparring! Everything I taught myself how to do tends to start at incredibly painful or maim, I'm not using those on you!" Yang blinked at that as Qrow, who had been doing some paper grading from the sidelines spoke up.

"I suppose there's a reason why that seems to be the extent of your knowledge." I cast a glance towards the teacher, who was staring me with a bemused expression. I threw my hands up sighing.

"Gonna come clean here, I've been in my fair share of scraps, like I said. What I didn't mention is that I don't fight the same person more than once, as my tendency towards those kinds of moves tend to be highly discouraging for future encounters." Ruby just tilted her head questioningly while Yang and Qrow had looks of understanding on their faces. I gave a grim smile to Ruby. "People in the hospital tend to worry less about going after the guy who put them there with his bare hands, especially when they started it. I can't outright break bones, but I know how to ruin someone's day. Or week. Or month. It depends really." That last bit was with a thoughtful expression on my face as I trailed off. Yang just waved her hands rapidly.

"Wait, wait wait. So because that's the extent of your knowledge, you're holding back? What about those thugs from Sunday?" I blinked out of my thoughts to stare at her.

"Uh… they were dumbshits who picked that fight? Like I give a damn about them. You, on the other hand, I live with and actually like, so I'm not going to use the stuff I put people in hospitals on you. I have amateurish knowledge on how to fight, that can end very badly if I do something that's supposed to only incapacitate and fuck it up, changing it to something lethal." Yang considered that, then began bouncing on her feet in a boxer's stance.

"Well, why don't you try it? I'm not to go easy on you anyway, and my Aura and Semblance especially will let me take it. Worst comes to worst, Uncle Qrow is here and is fast enough to stop us if something's about to happen." At her words, Qrow did stand from where he was sitting, to indicate his willingness to move at a moment's notice. I sighed.

"This is another one of those things I'm not going to be able to talk you out of, isn't it?" Her nod caused me to sigh again, before bringing my hands into a bastardized boxer's stance at my head, only my hands were held loosely like claws. "Fine fine. If only so you don't bitch at me later for holding back because you're a woman."

**(-Play Shield of Faith, Immediate/Globus mix-)**

Yang rushed forward at my words, and threw a quick right jab at my head. I half-stepped to the left, my left hand darting out and pushing her arm away, overbalancing her to her surprise as my right shot out and did the same to her left, spreading both of our arms wide. I quickly brought my hands back and grabbed her shoulders before slamming into her with a headbutt that sent her stumbling back before I spun and lashed out with my right leg, catching her in her torso and sending her back farther a few steps in surprise as I quickly brought my leg back and settled back into my stance. At her look, I just shrugged as if to say "I warned you." Her face hardened at that as she settled into her own stance again, and I let out a mental sigh, knowing this was going to suck.

She rushed forward at her max speed, twice as fast as she had been for the entirety of our sessions since she got out from school today, and began throwing multiple fast punches at me. I wouldn't be able to pull the same tricks twice, so I just dodged and deflected to the barest minimum, blocking a few shots that came close to actually hitting me clean. As her body shifted for a kick I jumped back out of range and barely dodged it, if that had hit I would be hurting damnit! She was quick though and brought it down in a stomp to bring her back in close for another barrage of punches, also this time I had thought of something and brought my hands a bit lower. At her first punch, my hand shot out and grabbed her arm instead of just deflecting it. Pulling, I rushed forward myself and struck her in the stomach before turning and throwing her away from me a good few feet. She rolled before lunging back at me as I went back to dodging, blocking even more blows now as her Semblance was giving her strength from the few blows I had landed. Damn it, I knew this was going to be bad!

Still, her getting emotional might be good. I dropped to the ground at her next blow and attempted another sweep which connected this time, dropping her to the ground. I quickly got back to my feet and began backpedaling away rapidly to come up with more time as Yang kipped up, her eyes red. However, before she could assault me again Qrow intervened, getting between us.

"That's enough, both of you. We're sparring, not fighting, and that should do for today. Yang, if you actually notice, Orion is rather beat up." Yang blinked, before looking closely at me. I winced as the adrenaline of being in a fight wore off as I waved away their concerns.

"I'm fine, really, don't worry." At Qrow's half-hearted glare I sighed before stripping off the jacket I was wearing since we began. With it now off, it was quite clear due to my short-sleeved shirt just how many blows I had to block instead of dodge or deflect and what that to me. While I knew nothing was broken, my arms were pieces of art composed of discolored skin and normal skin, more the former than the latter. "Seriously, I'll _be_ fine, I can heal. It just hurts. A lot, now that there's no adrenaline to serve as a barrier. Also, Ow. Lots of ow."

Yang rushed over, concern all over her face. "I'm soo sorry, I should have held back more!"

I pushed her away from inspecting them, closing my eyes as I reached towards the source within me once more. "It's fine Yang, you're used to fighting people who naturally use Aura to protect them, and I kind of expected as much to happen when we first started." I let my arms hang down as my aura engulfed me, before I specifically focused it around my arms. I exhaled slowly as the pain disappeared, though I was still pretty beat up, my aura was cutting away the pain and was slowly working on healing it. I'd be fine when I woke up tomorrow. I opened my eyes to see an appraising look on Qrow's face as Yang still looked a bit guilty.

"You're not at a bad base, you only did so poorly because as you said you lack actual training and Yang is a bad person for someone to compare themselves when first learning. I am actually impressed you landed a few blows on her, that's generally seen as incredibly difficult, more so than dodging her own." I shrugged, not letting up on my concentration as I answered his statement.

"Like I said, Yang's style is fairly straightforward. She's used to opponents with weapons or training to fight Grimm, not someone who will grapple with her in close or be willing to deflect her blows with my hands, as I need to be as close while unarmed to be effective. If she fought someone who relied on martial arts who was at her level, she'd probably have a few issues. Also, her style is very upper body based, I would advise being wary of kick based styles, as boxing is a really bad style to use against it." I noticed Yang looking thoughtful at my words, Ruby as well, before Ruby bounced up and ran over to me, carefully tugging on my shirt to drag me along.

"Now that I've seen that I can continue working on your weapon!" I just laughed at her, walking along to prevent her from doing something irrationally bad.

"Fine fine, show me what you have so far and I'll tell you of a few suggestions I've thought of that would suit me…"

* * *

Still, ow. While the bruises were gone by the time I got to work Friday, I was still sore as hell. Yang is brutally strong, even when she's holding back, and I'm just a human who has barely learned how to enhance himself. I hissed as I rubbed my arms, pausing where I was in my book on the history of Vale to do so. Tukson, who was reorganizing a bookshelf nearby, looked up at me.

"You alright Orion?" I just waved him off, returning to my book and turning a page.

"Yeah, some friends of mine are teaching me how to defend myself and we went a bit overboard. Still a little sore is all." Tukson nodded, before seeming to think of something.

"Well, considering that you're not doing much here, mind running an errand?" I raised an eyebrow at him. For my first few days I had only stayed in the shop, watching over the front counter while Tukson either ran errands himself or did some work in the office. This would be my first time leaving the shop while on the clock, so to speak. "A customer ordered one of our new books on various alcoholic mixes we just got from Mistral. I'm still organizing all these shelves, so would you mind running it out to him?" I blinked.

"Drink mixes? So the guy's a bartender or something?" Tukson nodded as he stood from where he was and walked past the counter into his office.

"Or something. He actually owns a nearby club, and does a few other businesses on the side. His name's Hei Xiong, nicknamed Junior. He's well known by many to be an information broker. I've paid him a time or two to pick up names of some rare books, so he's somewhat of a regular. Ah, here we go." At that last he walked back out carrying a book that he handed over to me, which quickly disappeared in the pockets of my jacket. To make clear, yes, my jacket pockets are large enough to stuff a book into. My jacket is like its own bag of holding, so awesome. "Anyway, just run on down and deliver that yeah? And don't worry about getting in, age limit for actually getting in when it's open is 18, and his boys aren't really that bad. Just don't piss them off."

I shrug, stepping around the counter and heading for the door. "Come on boss, I'm not one to provoke people."

* * *

I rolled my shoulders, easing my aura lightly through as I waited for a street light to change. Tukson had passed along a small note with the book with the address written down, so I asked someone at a nearby coffee shop where to go. After getting directions, I set off at a brisk pace immediately. Let's see… my vague memories tell me that Junior was a businessman who dabbled in the darker side of the law, considering his interactions with Roman. Aside from him, the only truly trained people in his employ were the Malachite twins, who were a fairly effective tag team that still got wrecked by Yang. Which was a bit unfair of a judgment, as damn near everyone got wrecked by her. I hummed as the light changed and I walked across the street, noticing the people around me. It was only a bit after 1, so not a lot of people were in this district right now. Finally I got to the club, which was fairly impressive looking. I gave a low whistle as I looked it over.

"Not bad. Time to track down a bear…"

So muttering, I wandered over to the door and knocked on it. Paused for a minute, appreciating the architecture. Knocked again. Seriously? Fuck it, Tukson said not to worry about getting in. I pulled the door open and found myself looking out at an empty club, devoid of people and sound, though at least there was light. I walked across the expanse of the place, noting that it was actually pretty good lucking on the inside when, you know, it wasn't getting torn apart in a firefight. I then face palm as the realization of what I just thought settled in. _I'm turning into Yang…_

Still, it was rather odd that the door was unlocked, with no one here. I called out as I wandered around. "Hello? Got a package for a Mr. Xiong?" My voice echoed around the building. I passed out of the outer area into a back room area of sorts, I'm guessing a set of apartments or other such rooms of various natures. I wander down them, noting what path I was taking before coming to a set of stairs, I'm guessing they led to the DJ's booth and to more rooms. Shrugging, I walk up them, keeping an eye and ear out for anyone. So far, nothing. You'd figure there'd be somebody around here, jeez!

I finally heard voices as I got up to the second floor, coming from a barely opened door. Feminine, so I'd assume the twins. Still, they had some authority, maybe I could just drop the book off with them? I wandered over to the door and lightly knocked on it, careful not to knock it open any farther.

"Excuse me? I'm looking for Hei Xiong?" A quiet pause, some mutterings, before the door opened slightly and a black-haired head popped out, green eyes dully staring at me.

"And the fact that we're female doesn't tell you we're not Junior?" I shrug at that, stepping a bit away from the door as at least someone answered finally.

"Like I know what type of a name Hei Xiong is? Look, can you tell me where he is so I can give this to him and go back to work?" The twin in front of me slowly blinked as if considering, before pausing.

"Wait. How'd you get in here, especially this far? Actually, who are you, anyway?" I just sweatdropped, gesturing towards the main club area.

"The door was open. I didn't come across anybody, so I just wandered around. I'm a new employee of Tukson's. Look, can you tell me where he is or at least take the damn book yourself?" Getting tired of this girl, who I'm assuming is Melanie due to her attitude. Why can't things be simple? Because apparently some god up there hates me. Her face shifted into a scowl.

"We have no idea where he is. Unless you have something important to ask, get out!" With that the door slammed shut, and if I hadn't taken a step back earlier it would have hit me. Rude, I was being mostly polite to her. I flipped off the door as I turned and began walking away.

"Fuck you too then, bitch." Apparently, I underestimated the acoustics of the hallway, as almost immediately after I said that I heard the door slam wide open. I cast my eyes over my shoulder and blinked.

"What did you just call me?" Standing in the doorway was a pissed off Melanie wearing only a white bra and panties. Behind her I could barely make out her twin, wearing a red set of underwear. I slowly blinked at them.

"If you're going to yell at me or try violent shit, could you at least put some clothes on first so the hotness doesn't distract me?" They blinked in unison before looking down at their state of undress. A shriek of embarrassment followed the door closing. Almost three seconds after that was a shriek of rage which was my cue to bolt down the hallway and get the hell out of dodge. Fuck no, I'm not staying around that, I only barely know how to defend myself, I'm still a bit sore, and those two are skilled fighters and outnumber me. I would get beaten to a pulp. I ran and threw open the door at the end, which led to more stairs which led to the DJ's booth, thankfully. I ran up them and hopped over the booth, tucking and rolling as I hit the floor before coming back to a stand. Please tell me that I lost them…

"GET BACK HERE YOU PERVERT!" Apparently not. I made tracks towards the entrance, having enough air to shout back.

"Screw you, lady! Not my damn fault you weren't wearing clothes when you decided to be a bitch to me!" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as almost immediately after both of the twins, fully clothed and armed, came sailing down from the DJ's booth. I paled as I noticed the menacing expression on Melanie's face, and the lesser but still angry face on Miltia's. Fuuuck… I was only halfway to the damn door, so I spun to face them as I held up my hands defensively, slowly backing away from the angry females.

"Ok, look, I know we came to a bad start, but there's really no need to fight here. You might damage your boss's package you know!" Well, that at least forestalled Miltia, who stopped in her tracks. Unfortunately, that didn't stop Melanie, who continued slowly advancing towards me, heels clicking loudly on the floor. "Seriously? Come on, it's not like you have anything to be ashamed of, and it was a complete accident! Shit." That last word was stated as Melanie began to sprint towards me, and I spun and began running myself. Thank god I left the door open- only to stagger as I ran into someone massive coming through the door. I blinked, looking up to see a tall man dressed in a black suit with a white undershirt wearing red aviators staring down at me.

"Who the hell are you?" I would've answered, but I could hear Melanie still approaching fast, so I just ducked past him out the door to put him between me and the angry twin who stopped at the sight of the man, still angry.

"Seriously lady, chill out! God, what is it, your period or something?" Wow I'm not doing myself any favors. The man just turned to stare at me.

"So, any particular reason why some guy I don't know was in my club about to get attacked by one of my enforcers?" Melanie was behind him gnashing her teeth, though thankfully she made no moves to go past him. Miltia at this point had come up to be behind her, though she didn't look as pissed off. I looked towards the man who I assumed was their boss.

"Hei Xiong?" He nodded at that, still looking a bit perplexed. "I got a book here for you from Tukson. I would give it to you now, except then the pissed off girl behind you would attack me as soon as you moved out of the way." He just continued to stare, before turning and gesturing with his head for the girls to leave. It looked like Melanie was about to ignore him and lunge at me anyway, but a stern glare from him and Miltia's hand on her shoulder had her growl before turning and stalking back towards her room, her twin following just behind her. I sighed in relief at their backs as Junior turned back to me. Digging in my coat, I took out the book and handed it to him. "Thanks. That could've been very bad. Here you go Mr. Xiong."

Junior just waved me off. "Enough with the Mr. Xiong stuff, call me Junior. Didn't know Tukson hired anybody new. And why did Melanie look half a step from killing you?"

I snorted, shoving my hands into my pocket. "I've only been work for a few days. As for why… Melanie? Anyway, as for why she wanted to kill me, it's a long story. Tell you what, I'll pop by here after my shift and tell it to you if you keep her and her sister from killing me when I show up?" May as well. If I can get in with Junior, maybe I can prevent Yang tearing the place apart, and still have a nice place to hang out. Junior nodded at my suggestion.

"Fair enough. If it's entertaining enough, I'll even buy you a drink." I'll take that, and with a cheerful wave to the owner of The Club, I headed out, back to Tukson's and work. And to access to his terminal to send a message…

* * *

Hmm… well that could've been taken better. I sent a message through the terminal to Yang, Ruby, and Qrow. Qrow was the first reply, simply telling me that he had faith in my ability to not get killed in the city, and to come back at a somewhat reasonable time so as to not wake up the girls. Ruby's message, though it implied she was pouting while reading it, was agreeable to the idea, knowing that I needed to go out and meet more people. Yang… was kinda pissed off judging by her reply, but she'll get over it. I had just clocked off from work and headed back to The Club, which was now open. I could hear the music from here as I approached, and there was one man serving as bouncer to prevent underage people from getting in. Two more were nearby at the door keeping guard and probably just in case a message needed to be sent to Junior. I approached the one acting as bouncer, as no one else was around.

"Ah, hello! Sorry, could you let Junior that the delivery boy he met earlier is here? He wanted to talk to me after I got off work." While I was old enough to get into the club, I lacked ID, and I figured it'd be easier to get past them if their boss got me through. The bouncer just raised an eyebrow behind his red aviators, before waving a hand at one of the guards who slipped inside. I rocked back and forth on my feet, waiting.

"So… working for Junior. What's that like?" The bouncer seemed surprised I was talking to him, but deigned to answer.

"Not bad. He's a fair man, and not a bad boss. Mostly spend my time working guard duty around here, and trying to not piss of the twins. They've been in a rather irritable mood today especially." I just gave a nervous laugh as the guard from before returned, Junior right behind him. I waved at him, and he gestured for me to come inside before turning around and heading in. I paused before heading in, before extending my hand to the bouncer.

"Name's Opal. Maybe we can chat again sometime?" The bouncer reached out and shook my hand as well. I could distinguish him from the rest of Junior's mooks, he had dark blue highlights and had two of the swords the men had on them on his hips instead of just one.

"Tony. I generally serve as the bouncer anyway, so you won't have to look hard if you want to." With a parting wave, I walked into The Club and closed my eyes for a moment, allowing the music to wash over me.

**(-Pick any music you think you'd hear in this type of setting. Personally picking Stamp on The Ground, ItaloBrothers-)**

Opening my eyes again, I could see several members of the population dancing in the middle of the club. Several of Junior's guards were patrolling the area, the DJ with his bear mask up at the booth. At one end of the bar stood the twins, keeping an eye out ostensibly, but Melanie was trying to kill me with a glare. Eh, she'll get over it. At the other Junior stood behind the bar, waving me over. I walked across the club and sat down at a stool across from him. He slid me over a glass of water and leaned down to look at me.

"So, why does Melanie want nothing more than to rip out your throat and watch you bleed right now?" Taking a sip of the water, I explained the story to him in full, leaving nothing out. By the end of it, he was roaring with laughter, earning him a glare from his bodyguard in white as she could probably guess why he was laughing. Letting out a last few chuckles he wiped a few tears from his eyes.

"Damn, that's hilarious! I wouldn't worry too much, she'll only be this mad for about another week or so. You just happened to catch her at a bad time today, and she'll be a bit more uncaring later. It's probably why Miltiades isn't really pissed off. That's some bad luck though, I gotta say." I groaned, dropping my head on the counter.

"Tell me about it. I seem to be surrounded by women who can kick my ass with hair-trigger tempers." Junior raised an eyebrow as he began wiping down a few glasses when I looked back up at him.

"Hmm? Girl troubles?" I snorted.

"Not like you'd think. I just recently got into Vale, and had an unfortunate encounter with a pack of Grimm." Junior winced at that. "Quite. Took out a few with my pocket knife, but I was overwhelmed pretty rapidly. I got lucky though; one of the students at Signal happened to be out there, and just wiped out the whole pack." Junior whistled.

"The entire pack? That's impressive for a newbie student." I nodded, drinking some of my water. Getting my ass beat by Yang and watching her and Ruby when they spar against each other, I keep forgetting that they're quite a bit above average in terms of combat ability.

"Like I said, lucky. Her and Uncle, an actual Hunter, brought me to their house, where they patched me up. I've been staying with them and the kid's older sister since. Kid's rather naïve, but a good person, and dreams of being a Huntress to help people. She's also a genius weapon designer. Her older sister though… literally a spitfire. She's a damn good hand-to-hand fighter, and has a hair-trigger that links to her Semblance, which just happens to light shit on fire and drastically increase her strength." Junior shook his head at that, reaching underneath the bar for something.

"Damn, quite a story. Glad things've been working out for you since you got here. Here, on the house." As he passed me a drink he pulled from underneath that I cautiously accepted and inspected, he went back to wiping glasses. "You got a name storyteller?" I shrugged, handing him back the bottle as he grabbed out a bottle opener and a bottle for himself, opening them both.

"For now, call me Opal. It's close enough to what I've been calling myself since I got here, and it's certainly quicker than my actual one." Junior passed me back the bottle, which I accepted. He raised his in mock salute.

"Alright Opal. To surviving temperamental females with weapons." I raised my own bottle, and then took a drink as Junior wandered down the bar, myself spinning to look out across the Club.

_Well, at least I have a way to kill time now…_

**AN: 5k+ chapter, excluding RRC and this. That's 5000 words of story for you guys this time! I introduced them and just couldn't stop. Let's see… Notes!**

**-Me actually landing a few blows on Yang: So… yeah a lot of you might get pissed off at that. But here's a few things: A. She wasn't using Ember Celica B. She wasn't using her Aura or Semblance C. She was still holding back. She had quite the handicap, and I utilize a much more brutal style that relies on grappling and counter-blows and dodging, something that she's not really used to dealing with as a majority of Remnant seem to prefer legitimate weaponry. Hand-to-hand fighters consist of: Yang, Ren (to a degree), Velvet (that was a damn good kick last episode), Melanie, Miltia, Neo. Rather short list, yeah? And Melanie and Miltia got their asses beat by Yang, so they're not that strong themselves. And I paid for those few hits, as shown by my arms getting wrecked from blocking when I had to. Remember kids, just because you're outclassed doesn't mean you can't be very irritating.**

**-The Club: Yeah… it lacks an official name, so whatever, it's The Club. I get a good enough suggestion, and I'll have Junior change it. Till then, deal with it. So lots of things about it. **

**-First of all, layout. It's essentially what we see in the Yellow Trailer, along with a series of back rooms for living in and a way up to the DJ's booth. Pretty basic, but the majority of the guards, the twins, and Junior all live at The Club.**

**-The people: They consist of Junior, the Malachites, and the henchmen. I'm only going to be naming and making some sort of personality for a few of the henchmen, kind of OCs except they're still piss poor combatants. The ones in my head are: Tony, the bouncer, who is rather laid back and dual wields cleavers; Kuma, which is what I'm naming the DJ, an energetic man with an SMG who isn't much of a fighter; and the bartender I have yet to name who serves drinks alongside Junior, who's personality and name are up in the air. Bartender will also be a noncombatant. I need a couple of people to interact with on a regular basis after all, so we'll see.**

**-Age limits: So… honestly never really got any real sign of age limits, and I'm fairly sure Junior doesn't give a damn anyway. But what it boils down to: 16 to get into the club, 18 to drink. The drinking age is due to the fact that I really don't see them caring as much about underage drinking when people the age of 18 are learning how to hunt monsters with unique weaponry. Kind of like Naruto: "Old enough to kill, old enough to drink." Make sense? Yeah that means we're not going to see Ruby there, ever. I'd feel bad if I did that anyway, we don't need a 14-15 year old wandering around a night club.**

**-The Yellow Trailer: Yeah… I'm subverting it because I want to use Junior's club and his people more, so no trashing of the place. Boo hoo, fucking deal with it. There will still be a time for Yang to showcase her skills, and I'll be switching some of Volume 2 up when we get there, far in the future. **

**So that would be everything for now. Once again, I request book names/concepts for the stock of the Book Trade, so please leave those in a review if you think of any you wouldn't mind sharing! I will credit you entirely with the idea if you give me any. All of you people following me, it's awesome to know I have loyal readers, but I need advice! Criticism! I'm not that good a writer, and every little bit helps!**

* * *

**Finally, a challenge for you folks who write! A little niggling thought popped into my head that maybe someone else could turn into a story: What if **_**Yang**_** was Ren's lifelong friend, and **_**Nora**_** was Ruby's older sister? What would be different? What would stay the same? The only request I have on it is that the new backgrounds make sense for the switch of the girls.**

* * *

**Next chapter we'll have more interactions with me and who I've introduced, mainly some time with Ruby and more Aura lessons as well as a conversation or two with Tukson and Junior. Also we'll see the reintroduction of Ren for another encounter and the formal intro of Nora, the forever lovable bubbly red head WHO WILL BREAK YOUR LEGS.**

**So! Read! Review! Don't piss off women with weapons and combat training!**


	11. Chapter 11

**RRC: Weekend of work was long… to those who have reviewed…**

** ultima-owner: Amusing for everyone but the three people involved, mind you. At this point in time, I would lose in a fight against the twins, or even just one, though it'd be a lot closer against one. I know this, hence why I didn't stick around for a violent confrontation. Currently, with the exception of Jaune who isn't here anyway, any of the RWBY cast could hand me my ass. So I have to be light on my feet and quick to speak otherwise I'm done.**

** Interested Guest: I kinda wish you had an account so I could refer to you better then just some random guest. As I said, I shall respond, though I won't split it into paragraph-to-paragraph response, don't want to take up too much room. As for my take on SI… well, that's all you really can do. Again, these people are grade A badasses, they are at the peak of real-life human physical capabilities, if not beyond. I am an average human with really odd karma and a unique set of skills who is determined to make the best of a new situation and survive. That said, if I put myself somewhere else in Remnant, then I won't have fallback points, and if I can help with a few careful words or nudges, well I might as well. You don't have to be a hero to help someone. And yes, I am partially abusing my knowledge of characters from before I got there, but I'm willing to take every edge I have.**

**RWBY pairing: In order of the team: Yeah, Ruby isn't happening. Her Uncle terrifies me, her sister will kill me, and Ruby is far too young. She may develop a crush on me but that would mainly be for comedic shenanigans and teasing material for Yang to use, as no. Weiss…. Yeah as I already stated that she won't pop up for a year, gigantic no. Plus she's kind of irritating until Ruby works with her for a bit. Blake is a possibility, that's quite an idea there. We'll see how that goes. As for Yang… I honestly want to avoid pairing myself with Yang, because that'd be too easy how I set it up. I'm thinking of putting our relationship more like Ren and Nora's if you don't consider them dating. Really close friends.**

**Other pairings: JNPR: Nope. Nope nope nope. Already spoken for. CFVY is iffy for me, because as you said we know so little about them, and I don't feel like messing with that too much. They'll be more of side characters until we know more about them. Penny… No. I do NOT want to deal with Ironwood, I know better. Neo is psychotic, yes, but I could see her being playful outside of her work, so could be some amusing interactions. As for the twins… holy shit are you a mind reader or something? That's all I have to say for that.**

… ***headdesk* That name is awesome, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT. So yeah, crediting you for that later. And I very much appreciate the book names and ideas! You are awesome!**

**The Life and Trials…**

"Hey Tukson?" Today was Saturday, the day after my… unfortunate, delivery run, and my subsequent acquaintanceship with Junior. The book trade was rather slow today, so I merely sat back at the counter with a book open on, surprise surprise, weapons engineering. Ruby was encouraging me to read more about it, and it was rather interesting to find out how they made such unique pieces, so I was reading about that and Dust in my spare time at work. Tukson himself was relaxing in a chair by the front door, reading his own book which he had grabbed up from the fantasy section. He looked up at my voice however.

"Yes?" Tukson really didn't talk much at work, unless he was explaining or telling me to do things. Not that he was rude or anything, he was just a rather quiet man outside of work. Customers though will keep him talking all day. As I'm not a customer, he doesn't bother speaking up unless necessary. I don't mind myself; Yang and Ruby make up enough loudness for a day, not to mention all of the other people I have met. Note to self, make up with Melanie before she kills me in my sleep… anyway.

"I meant to ask before, but what do you think of the faunus? And the White Fang?" Let's see how early he got tired of the violence… and what he thinks of his own kind. While I don't remember what type of faunus he was, and only vaguely remember his connection with the Fang, I still remember enough to tread lightly. Tukson stiffened slightly out of the corner of my eye, and seemed to be giving me a scrutinizing look. I carefully paid it no mind and turned the page of my book.

"What brings this on?" I hummed, no need to get him suspicious or angry, he is my boss.

"Curiosity. You asked some searching questions yourself, and while I guess you don't mind the faunus because you hired me despite my views, I don't know your actual opinion, so I was curious. I'd like to know more about the man who pays me." Tukson seemed to relax at that and leaned back a little in his chair, gazing at the roof without seeing it.

"I'll start with the second question. Do you know that the White Fang were originally a protest group, a peaceful protest group?" I nod. I think Qrow had mentioned that once, so I can point at him about that knowledge. "Very few know or remember it. They were attempting to convince people to quit mistreating faunus discrimination in the workplace. They were not successful. But they kept trying, and then they started to get met by violence. In turn, they fought back, and started using that violence proactively when they saw that they weren't being ignored any longer. It is unfortunate, but it seems that nothing will convince them to change their ways back when they see actual results. As for the faunus themselves… they are people who are mistreated for no real reason at all, aside from human fear. Which is, at it's core, the cause of this whole mess."

I tilted my head to the side as I looked up at him. "Because the Grimm are attracted by such fears?" At his nod, I hummed as I looked back down at my book. "Fair enough. Thanks for answering."

He shrugged. "It's not a problem." He sent a glance at the clock and stood, closing his book. "Hey, I have to go run some more errands again. You don't mind do you?" I shook my head, turning the page in my own book.

"Thought that was the whole point of hiring me, so you could take of things yourself since you don't have to be at the store the whole time?" I waved him off. "Go. I'll keep an eye on the place and put that book back while you're out." He gave me a small smile before walking up and setting the book on the counter. After that, he turned and walked out the door.

I lost track of the time after that, engrossed in my own book. It was actually rather fascinating, how many different ways of building a weapon exists, and how connected one could be to your weapon. Like it's a part of… Wait. I reread a certain paragraph again. Okay, yeah, I'm bringing that up with Ruby. As I made that mental note, I heard the door jingle. I looked up and was about to greet the newcomers before a hyper-active red-head blurred around the store, stopping at various places with different poses as she talked. I didn't bother trying to listen, instead tuning her out and focusing on the second figure, who looked quite familiar as he looked rather exasperated. He gave me a nod and rose his voice.

"Nora." The girl paused mid-run from bouncing to another part of the store, right next to Ren. "I think you are irritating the shop owner." The now named ball of energy that was Nora turned to look at me and blinked, before sticking out her tongue and bopping herself on the head.

"Whoops, sorry about that!" I sighed, shaking my head after bookmarking my page. Thoughts to be dealt with later.

"It's fine. Welcome to Tukson's book trade, home to every book under the sun. I'm not Tukson. How can I help you?" Nora blurred again to be right in front of me. Startled, I leaned back.

"Are you the one who gave Ren the book about sloths?" At my slow nod, she cheered. "Alright! Then do you happen to have any cookbooks about pancakes?" Oh thank god for foreknowledge, which I'm happily abusing at a bookstore to stave off the hordes. I reach under the counter and hold out a book to her. It was rather thick.

"As it happens, our most recent delivery happened to have this, 'Pancake Styles of the  
World.'" Before I could say anything else the book disappeared from my grasp and Nora was plopped down on the ground next to the counter and intently studying the book. Ren shook his head and walked up himself.

"Sorry about her. Nora is…" he just shrugged, unable to come up with a fitting enough description. I shrugged in return.

"It's fine. Ren, right?" At his nod, I continued, chuckling. "I remember how we first met. You were a lot more panicky then." He grimaced at the memory, which caused me to chuckle even more. I probably didn't want to know. "I suppose you're here for a book this time?" Surprisingly, he shook his head.

"Not quite. I figured that there were good odds there'd be one here I could distract Nora for a time with, considering my last visit." I shrugged at that. "Plus, I figured I could talk with you." I raised an eyebrow. He looked a touch embarrassed. "Few people are willing to approach me due to Nora's constant presence. I don't mind her, but I'm not antisocial."

I nodded, looking at the intent redhead who was carefully scrutinizing the pages. "Fair enough. The book's 200 lien by the-" I blinked as suddenly her hand was in my face with the requisite money. When did she even move? Stupid reality-warping powers… I quite calmly took the money and began making notes while keeping a casual amount of attention on Ren. "So, judging by the metal block on her back, I'm assuming you're training to be a Hunter and Huntress? At Signal?" Ren nodded at the first one, but shook his head at the second assumption.

"Taught by our parents. Nora's father is a skilled weaponsmith who helped us craft our weapons. That 'metal block' is Magnhild, Nora's hammer-grenade launcer." With a quick gesture two small weapons popped out of his sleeves and into his grips. "These are StormFlower, my own weapons."

I gave a low whistle, leaning forward a bit to inspect them. "Not bad. You'd be a terror in close combat." Another gesture had the green guns disappear into his sleeves as a thought occurred to me. "Not much stopping power, though, just from the glimpse I saw. How do you get around that." He merely shrugged, gesturing with his chin at his friend.

"Nora tends to cover that area herself. Alone, however, I am also quite skilled in the application of Aura alongside martial arts." Yay for more knowledge! Well, knowledge that I can use now, because someone else told me of it. I leaned on the counter, crossing my arms.

"Aura can be applied without a weapon with enough strength to hurt Grimm? Thought we could only use it for a shield or recovery without a focus or Dust." Ren took a stance, almost like that of a lecturer's.

"And if that was entirely the case, people wouldn't be able to use their Semblances without a weapon, now would they?" Fair point, I've seen Ruby abuse the hell out of hers on a regular basis. "It's generally deemed more effective to channel your Aura through weaponry, but that doesn't mean you need a weapon. Several Hunter and Huntresses are perfectly capable of unarmed combat with their Aura. It's generally not their go to, however." He blinked then, giving me a scrutinizing look. "Actually, I am a bit curious myself now. For someone who has their Aura unlocked, and a quite a lot of it, at your age, you should know this." I gave a sheepish laugh, rubbing the back of my head.

"Nah, I only recently had it unlocked by someone. I'm not a Hunter or training to be one, but my current roommates seem to find it necessary to train me, 'just in case'. To be fair to them, they did meet me when I was the middle of a bad situation, but still, it's not like I plan on leaving Vale or actively hunting Grimm!" Ren gave me this look as if asking why I would listen to them, which I returned with a deadpan, "Puppy dog eyes and a blond bombshell with a right hook that can take down street lamps, without her Semblance." He winced in sympathy. "Exactly. Their uncle, who's a veteran Hunter in his own right, has been teaching me about Aura when we have time. I wouldn't mind learning some more though. Hey, does it matter what style of unarmed combat you use? Does that affect how the Aura manifests?"

And so with that Ren and I got into a long discussion about how Aura manifested with various movements of the body, with Nora occasionally flipping the pages of her book.

* * *

That was nice. I waved at Ren and Nora, who had made her new book disappear somewhere on her body, as they left and the shop was left back in silence. A quick glance at the clock showed that I only had an hour left at work. Huh, that's surprising. Normally Tukson's back by now. I turned back to the book on weapons engineering, and opened back to my bookmark to re-read a particular section. Yep, I wasn't wrong the first time. Ruby and I are definitely going to be having a talk tomorrow before I spar with Yang. Before I could continue reading, however, the door jingled, and I looked up to see the blonde brawler herself walking in with a cheerful smile. I smiled back at her.

"Yang. Good to see you. I thought you were hanging out with your friends today?" Unlike Ruby, Yang had multiple friends at Signal, as she was far more extroverted and sociable then the weapons nut. According to Ruby, she normally hung out with them on weekends while Ruby stayed at home reading or practicing with her training blade, which was essentially a scythe like crescent rose with no gun part. Yang just sauntered over to the counter and leaned on it.

"And I was. But they kept me bugging me about my so-called mysterious new roommate." I quirked an eyebrow. I hadn't really interacted with people much outside of work so why… Yang had the decency to look a little bashful. "Our little scrap last week was recorded and put onto the internet. Ruby's gotten a lot of admirers from school for using her weapon without seriously maiming or killing someone due to the design of her weapon, but she tends to run away from them as she doesn't how to react." I chuckled at that. Something to work on, breaking Ruby out of her socially awkward shell. Well, she wasn't really awkward, just a bit hard to open up. I gestured at Yang to continue. "What caught most people's attention at school was that someone was also fighting alongside my sister and me, someone that no one had seen or met before. So my friends wouldn't stop asking me about you, since Ruby is better at dodging questions, literally."

I nodded at that. It made sense that people would be curious, though I had hopes to keep my head down. I forgot about the wonderful joys of social media. "So why'd you ditch them? I know just being asked a few questions wouldn't bug you that much, and I wouldn't've minded if you had told people about me. I'm not trying to be antisocial." Yang shook her head.

"It wasn't that, I told them that you're a friend from one of dad's most recent missions that had decided to come to Vale. It's that I realized that I actually don't know much about you. You talk a lot about your culture and philosophy from your old home, but you rarely talk about yourself much. So, I decided I'd go bug my friend at his work!" Ah. Crap. I had hoped that the girls wouldn't pick up that I was distracting them. Qrow already had, but he seemed fine enough not pushing, so had left the matter alone. I grimaced, leaning down on the counter.

"Tch… I'll talk to you about why that's happening on the way home. I get off soon anyway. Hey I've got a question for you, though." This peaked her curiosity, causing her to tilt her head to the side questioningly. "I know Ruby uses the scythe because it was all she was good at, and Qrow's an excellent teacher, but why do you use boxing? What inspired that?" Yang laughed at that, shaking her blond mane.

"Is that all? No big secret, really." She turned and plopped on the counter, sitting comfortably on it as I leaned back away and turned to look at her. She was smiling in reminisce. "When Ruby and I were younger, Ruby got picked on a lot. No real reason for it, kids were just being kids. I didn't approve of it, so I kept constantly getting into fights, even against older students. So I got pretty good at beating people bigger than me with my hands. When I started going to Signal, my so-called 'delinquent' record got noticed by one of the teachers, who taught me proper boxing to help me with that aspect of my fighting. When I figured out my semblance, it made even more sense for me to continue, as I could take a few blows better than anyone. It's why I designed Ember Celica for a boxing style of firing." Yang held up her hands and threw a few mock punches at the air, before looking at me. "What about you? During the incident, you seemed perfectly comfortable with using that halberd." I just chuckled.

"Something I picked up interest in. I read in an old book as a kid about using a quarterstaff as an extremely versatile weapon without actually aiming to kill, good for defending yourself against most basic weaponry or animals." I shrugged, holding out my hands. "Did some study as I was growing up, picked up one when I was about… 15? Practiced some of the basic katas and movements. I applied the same concepts from what I learned with that to a halberd, just needed to keep in mind the extra weight at the end of it. I had a bit of leeway there, the mind is a bit more malleable then the body." Putting my hands down, I gestured for her to get off the counter, which she pouted for a moment before complying. "So, your gauntlets are called Ember Celica?"

Yang grinned before a flick of her wrists had the golden weapons extend over the hands and the lower half of her fore-arms. "Yep, these babies are what I specialize in. Most of the students at Signal hate fighting me, because I'm tall enough to have decent reach but get in close enough to screw with the reach of their own weapons." Another gesture had her weapons disappear, retracting to their simple bracelet state. "I named them that because Ruby gave me a hand when I first designed them. The ember part from myself and my Semblance, and the celica part from Ruby's help and our family's habit of naming things after flowers, like Ruby's Crescent Rose." I tilted my own head to the side.

"Does she normally help people like that with their weapons?" Yang considered for a moment.

"I know in classes she's asked by others in class for advice, but actual help building? Nah, only me, though she has gotten very good at breaking down someone's style just by looking at their weapons. She's almost as much of a terror to spar against as I am, at least according to rumor. I haven't actually seen her spar against anyone." Hmm, well now that's interesting. Something to keep in mind… I glanced at the clock and noticed it was about time to go home. Well, it would be if- and the tingling of bell signaled exactly who I was waiting for, Tukson with two large bags filled with books. He gave me a jerk of his head to signify for me to leave, so I closed my book and wandered over to put it away while Yang chatted with my boss. Placing it back, I waved goodbye to Tukson and left with Yang.

"So?" Yang's question popped up after about five minutes of walking back towards her home in silence. I glanced at her in response. "Why haven't you told us anything about yourself? You don't act like you're all that secretive." I gave a deep sigh.

"Because I don't remember that much." At my words, Yang stumbled and then gaped at me. "I remember lots, I've proven that much. But any personal memories? Not that much. Hence why I guessed on the age I picked up my staff, and why I constantly talk about things associated with my life, not any actual memories. Hard facts, knowledge, fine, but actual memories? Almost completely wiped clean." Yang blinked, before gesturing wildly.

"But-but your name! You remember that much, don't you? And that knife of yours!" I had mentioned the sentimental value of the knife in a previous conversation over dinner, when Yang had asked how I had managed to fend off the beowolves long enough for Ruby to help. I shrugged.

"The knife is a family heirloom, that much is easy to remember, but I don't remember when it was given to me or who by. As for my name… it's not my real one, per se." She glared. I held up my hands. "It's still mine. It's a pen name I used online, and got rather attached to. I've been using it for years, and met a lot of people through it via the internet. When I couldn't remember my own name, I used one that would serve as a good substitute, as I did answer to it then." Her eyes softened as we kept walking.

"But… nothing at all? Your friends, your family?" I shook my head.

"I would say gone, but you can't actually lose memories without losing who you are. I'd say they're more so… buried very deeply, in a place I can't reach. In turn, I have raw knowledge about the rest of my life. All I know was that I had a few friends, parents, and a sister. No names, or ages though, and barely personalities on them." Yang looked rather sad.

"And you're ok with that?" It was my turn to glare at her, causing her to back up with hands held up. "Hey, I know I'd be pretty upset if I wasn't able to remember my family! Especially Ruby!" I turned away from her to look down the street as we walked.

"And I never said I was ok with it. But there's nothing I can do about it, and while yes it upsets me, I need to focus more on staying alive and adjusting rather than mourning. So long as I live, I can grieve for those lost times later, and there's nothing saying I won't remember them eventually. Just… I can't now." Cold, but true. I could just… feel, that I was someone who went with life as it comes, no regrets if I could help it. Yang shuddered.

"I can't imagine… To suddenly lose everything in your life and nearly die just due to some random turn of fate… and nothing to tell you why it happened?" I looked back at her, before slowly shaking my head.

"Not a thing. It's not all bad, though. I didn't die, I'm learning all sorts of new things, and I have you guys, right?" Yang cheered up that, clasping me with a quick one-armed hug.

"Right! Me and Ruby and maybe Qrow won't ever let you get down! That's what friends are for, right?" I nodded at her, smiling despite myself.

"Right. Come on, let's hurry up, I have a few questions for Qrow today."

* * *

"So ready to learn more about Aura?" It was after Yang and I had arrived at home and eaten. After doing so, Yang had wandered off to go browse the Dustnet, and Ruby had gone back to her room with Zwei following along, leaving just me and Qrow in the backyard, him sitting back in a chair with his weapon leaning against the back of it and myself sitting cross-legged comfortably on the ground.

"Sure. I had a talk recently about infusing Aura into your blows, and I know you can through past experience. Is it easier or harder for weapons?" Qrow hummed in thought.

"That depends on the person, though it is generally easier to project through a weapon. Yang is an exception, but that's more based on her combat style." I nodded; the difference between using her fists and Ember Celica wasn't much. "I'd like to teach you, but as Ruby hasn't made your weapon yet…" He trailed off at my deadpan. "Ah. I guess you found something out in your spare time?" I waved him off.

"I'll talk to her about it tomorrow. I did however read that a close family connection will work just as well, wouldn't it?" At his nod, I pulled out the hunting knife from my pocket. "Family heirloom should work just fine?" He considered, before shrugging and standing, grabbing his own weapon.

"At the very least, we can get the concept of infusing your Aura through your weapon." He held up his scythe in a blocking position in front of me, blade pointed away thankfully. "Admittedly, a lot of Aura is instinct, so give it a go. Channel some Aura into your weapon and give it a swing." Right. I closed my eyes, knowing for the first few tries I'd rather have all my focus rather than doing it quickly. Reaching, I felt the source of my strength, and let it flow through my body. When I could feel it doing that, I slowly began pushing it out into my knife. Slowly, very slowly, it began to encompass the knife as well, an outer layer, before settling in inside of it, recognizing it as another aspect. And… I could feel it. You read stories of swordsman who view their weapons as another part of their bodies, it's how people are taught. But… I could feel it literally. It wasn't a knife in my hands; it was _my knife_, another piece of me that just so happens to be built a little different. At the same time though…

It wasn't just mine. I could feel most of it accepting me, almost like an old friend, but I could feel… the presence of others. Not hostile, but familiar. Probably the remnants of my family and their impressions left upon it. I was kinda surprised it was there: Aura didn't exist in my old world, so that there was any of them left in it, it must have been a close possession for multiple generations. I was ok with that though; it would do for the teaching. Snapping open my eyes, I _moved_, knife in hand, and lashed out at Qrow. In that instant, I didn't see Qrow and his weapon, with my Aura around me and inside my own, giving me a second view. I saw another man with another piece of his own, one entirely of his design and possession that was outside of his biology. The sound of metal clashing upon metal rung out as my blade struck the shaft of his scythe before he pushed me away, a few wisps of black clashing in my eyesight against wisps of orange from my own weapon. I stumbled back, losing my focus and suddenly everything returned to normal. My knife wasn't a part of me; it was back to being something I just happened to carry around. I looked up at Qrow, and blinked as he approached.

"That was quite impressive, especially using an heirloom for a first try rather than a weapon of your own make." He seemed rather impressed. Eh, I was always a fast learner. But first…

"Yeah… uh, I may have screwed up a little." A quirk of his eyebrow had me looking around, _feeling _around me, before I brought my attention back to him. "I can still sense things. Aura. In the plants, your weapon, you… I can feel it, see it. I can feel Yang and Ruby's too." He slowly got a worried look on his face as he bent down a bit and carefully inspected me. "That's… not normal, is it?"

"No. No it is not."

… "Well, fuck my life."

**AN: There'll be a double update, relax. Otherwise this chapter would've been 10k+ words, which would've been completely off from the normal word count and throw the story's length off. So some notes for you, as no one has actually complained about me leaving them;**

**My habit of bringing up seemingly random topics with the rest of the cast: This is mainly because I want an excuse for all of my knowledge, or at least as much as I can get away with knowing. While I do have knowledge of **_**possible**_** events in the future, and of people, I really shouldn't, and so I need to sell it as if I don't. Thus, my constant questions. Plus, I'm a curious person anyway, who wouldn't want to learn all of these things?**

**Nora not talking much: Actually, she did, I just tuned out almost of all it. Yes it's a copout, but I'm not entirely comfortable writing someone like Nora in her happy-hyper mode, it's too far from my own personality. She will speak, but I'll probably tune out anything that isn't said when she's semi-serious. Sorry Nora fans.**

**Ren talking a lot: Not Ren's fault he hasn't had much to say in RWBY. He just has only needed a few words to get his point across. However, the nature of my questions made that… difficult. Once again, I apologize for the slight OOCness.**

**My amnesia: Don't remember if I made it clear before, but as I'm bringing it up again and some people may have been confused… it's highly selective. I have memories of all sorts of things of our world, culture, books, entertainment, lots of things you learn in school. But almost anything involving me personally? Wiped clean. Hence why I use my pen name inside of here, because it's all I can remember for a suitable name that I'll answer to. I'm not really okay with it, but I'm practical, and it's something that can be looked into later when I'm on more steady foundations. This'll be brought up a time or two in the future, and lead to some slightly depressing conversations with the others, but we'll see.**

**So, next chapter (which will be in like 5 seconds, double update), we'll see how I deal with my newest problem, as well as have a… discussion, with young Ruby Rose and another encounter with Junior and the Malachites. Stay tuned, my loyal readers!**


	12. Chapter 12

**RRC: If any of you somehow managed to review in the few seconds between the previous chapter and this one, kudos, I'll mention it next chapter. As is, I doubt it. On with the story!**

**So… Credit where it's due. My conversation with Ruby this chapter and some of the talk about Aura with Qrow is inspired, a lot, by xT-Zealot's "Soul" fics. The weapon's talk is entirely based off his ideas in "Soulforged", and the things about Aura I'll be bringing up this time around will be based a little bit on "Soulbound" and "Soul's Reflection" and the ideas of bonding there, though on less of a deep connection. You'll see the differences, if you go read his fics. Which you should, because they're great works. And before any of you bitch at me for using some of his ideas, I have full permission to do so from him, and I'm also accrediting it here now right at the start. Got it? Good.**

… **Of a Man Lost in Another Realm**

"Well, you don't seem harmed by it… It might be a manifestation of another aspect of Aura, though not one you see in someone so young and inexperienced." After a minor panic attack, Qrow and I had moved into the kitchen where I could sit and he could carefully inspect me. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"And that would be?" Qrow walked away from me and sat down in his own chair, steepling his fingers as he leaned on the table. He seemed to be contemplating something.

"I hadn't planned on mentioning this until later, if at all, since you seem quite serious about not becoming a Hunter, however your unusual circumstances must have affected something. We have told you that Aura is the manifestation of the soul, yes?" Kind of stressed a lot, but right now wasn't the time to be a smartass, so I merely nodded. "Aside from the Grimm, everything has it, though faunus and humans have far more than the plants and most animals, the reason for that being unknown but highly speculated. Unimportant to this conversation, however. Spending enough time around something or someone with sufficient aura capacity can… for a lack of a better word, link you to them."

I blinked. "Wait, link? Like linking the souls? That sounds really deep and complicated…"

Qrow shook his head. "Only at a very minor level. It is seen most often in weapons, something that is kept with Hunters and Huntresses daily and used daily, which is how they become so adept in manipulating them. This is built upon on why we work in pairs, and teams built of pairs. Spend enough time around your team, and you can work better with them in battle or daily affairs, the same thing for partners. Normally, all it is a sense of general location and intentions. With partners, it is to a somewhat deeper level, allowing them to tell what their surface emotions are when they're close enough. The farther away you are from something or someone you've connected with, the less powerful the effect." I slowly nodded.

"Ok… that makes sense for as much understanding as I have on the subject… but I've only been near you guys for a week, barely at that." Qrow gave a deep sigh, rubbing his forehead in thought.

"Yes… which is what is worrisome and very odd. It would make sense, somewhat, if it was just Yang, due to what happened earlier this week. Ruby to a lesser extent, as she did participate, but even then it would be stretching the limit. But you have very little connection to me, and can sense me." I concentrated for a moment.

"And Zwei." Qrow blinked, before looking up at me. "What? I can feel him too. He's only a few feet from Ruby. He feels pretty sturdy actually, what is that dog made of?" Before I could continue on that tangent, Qrow slowly leaned forward, scrutinizing my face.

"Really now? Exactly how do you perceive us then?" I blinked, before shrugging.

"Some very vague outlines in my sight, and a general sense of touch or feeling, like my instincts. Yang feels like a fire, a powerful raging one, and has a yellow outline around her. Ruby feels incredibly energetic, and is red. You… quite honestly terrify me, you feel like death, and you're outlined in a silver-black melding of color." Qrow sat down heavily.

"Well, there went that theory." At my confused look, he explained. "That's far too detailed for any bonding of any sort. It seems like you've somehow developed an extra sense." Well… maybe…

"There were..,. a lot of stories about a sixth sense of sorts." Qrow tilted his head, motioning for me to continue. "It was really just something that hinted at the tips of our minds. Somehow able to perceive danger when it wasn't there, or just get a feeling of wrongness from a situation. And a lot of others different uses, depending. Maybe because my body and mental awareness was never exposed to Aura, it adapted with a way to tell of where it is due to the sudden rush into my mind? A way of coping with all of this?" Qrow slowly nodded, considering.

"That… might make sense. You're not feeling emotions, are you?" I started to shake my head, but then considered.

"Only when I'm actually talking to you… and you're responding. I can't feel Yang's, or Ruby's. I'd say this is more of a new type of perception then an actual bonding, as I barely know you." Qrow seemed to be thinking hard about this.

"Hmmm… maybe it's something different about you, as you said. I'll ask around with some of my co-workers tomorrow. For now, you should get some sleep." I nodded, standing and heading on back to my room. It was… disconcerting, feeling everything around me. I could feel what my mind somehow automatically associates as Yang and Ruby in their rooms, and to a lesser extent Qrow in the kitchen, and Zwei in the bedroom. At the very edges I could feel the plants, but that felt like background noise, in a way, then any actual understanding of what's there. This was going to suck, trying to sleep against all of this, I know it…

* * *

"Hey Ruby." The next morning, Qrow and I had sat down for breakfast. Ruby was in her room, working again as she had apparently woken up earlier and eaten, and Yang had already left to spend time with her friends. We discussed it, and Qrow had said he would look into what he had available, to find any similar incidents. In the meantime, I'd experiment with my new sense and see what it could do. After Qrow had left, I decided to go and talk to Ruby about something I had read.

"Oh! Hey Orion. Decided to stay home today?" She was cheerful as ever. Zwei was snoozing on her bed, docile around me as always, and I plopped down next to him and allowed him to shift and cuddle up against me. Ruby felt… odd. Like I told Qrow, she felt energetic, and almost like a flower. I could barely feel Yang at this point, though if I really wanted to I could probably track her, and I couldn't feel Qrow at all since he left, so it seemed like there was a limit if I didn't know someone well.

"Yeah, wanted to ask you a few things about my weapon." Ruby perked up at this, almost bouncing in her seat. "Such as when exactly you were going to tell me I would have to build it myself?" And almost immediately she froze, and began to pale.

"Uuuuh… how did you find that out?" I snorted. Really? You're not getting out of this one, Ruby.

"I work in a bookstore. A bookstore with a catchphrase of 'Home to every book under the sun.' I have little else to do most days but read books. Books such as ones on Dust and weapon design, because I was curious. And I happened across a paragraph that stated that for the best results, you would have to infuse your Aura into a weapon _while you were in the process of building it._ Now then. Explain?" Ruby just sighed and leaned back in her chair a bit.

"I had been hoping to wait until we were closer to completion of the design." At my frown, Ruby continued. "Alright, alright! Yes, you have to make it yourself, everyone makes their own, though they may have help. You can use one that someone made for you, a lot of normal folk do, but it isn't as effective. A weapon that you built, that you put your soul and time into… it's connected on a very deep level, like adding to yourself. It's part of what allows us to combat the Grimm so effectively, because our weapons are truly extensions of ourselves. We know everything about it, down to every last screw." I continued to frown.

"And you didn't see it necessary to mention this earlier because…?" Ruby pouted.

"Because I thought if I did you wouldn't do it! I figured that you wouldn't just walk away if I dragged you to do it when it was all set-up, as you'd feel bad to get that far along and then just drop it." I blinked. For someone who was apparently socially awkward, she was scarily perceptive at times. Guilt tripping me? Really? Not saying it wouldn't've worked, it would have, which is impressive, but I never figured she'd be that devious. I sighed, slumping.

"Ruby…" I could feel her tense. "It's fine. I'll build the weapon, since you seem to be pushing so hard for me to have one." And she relaxed almost instantly and blurred in front of me.

"Really?!" I couldn't help it; I laughed at her exuberance, waking up the dog next to me who barked as well.

"Yes, really. You're putting in this much effort, and it would be nice to have something to depend on in case of an emergency. But that leads to my second question." Ruby paused in her bouncing, her head tilted questioningly. "Why are you going so far for me? You've already done more than enough, both in saving me and giving me a place to stay." She looked away, suddenly nervous.

"Well, it's because you're my friend of course!" Nope. Not buying that. I gave her a stern look as I crossed my arms.

"According to Yang, you haven't personally designed anyone else's weapons at all." She blushed brightly.

"Yang, you sell-out!" At my expectant look, her blush went a little deeper as she turned away. "Well, you don't know the first thing about it! And you keep stumbling into bad situations! Like I'd leave my friend to fend for himself, especially when he's an idiot like you are!" I just threw my head back and laughed uproariously.

"Jeez, Ruby, chill, no need to get upset over a simple question." I gave her a sincere smile as she pouted over her shoulder at me. "Seriously, I appreciate it, honestly. I actually had a bunch more ideas yesterday I wanted to talk to you about. I'm not really one to rely on just one trick, so I was wondering if you would be willing to help me design a few more weapons." And suddenly all of her embarrassment was gone as a blur of rose petals brought her back to right next to me.

"Ooh, ooh, really?" I shook my head. I'll let Yang tease her about her reactions later.

"Yeah, quite a few actually. Some of it is a bit inspired by Ember Celica, but I was wondering if a few of my ideas may be feasible…"

* * *

Multiple hours were spent with Ruby. Qrow returned a few hours later to find me and Ruby on the ground in her room with several pieces of paper scattered _everywhere_. When I said I had a few ideas, I meant quite a few, and Ruby was actually unable to answer a few of my questions. Qrow was dragged into it and was later found by Yang sitting in Ruby's chair poring over some other designs and several reference materials from his personal library, with Ruby comparing multiple designs on the Dustnet to our written ideas. I myself was carefully sketching another idea. She was about to laugh, until I noticed her and immediately dragged her to the bed where another few sketches sat, as she had experience with a part of that particular idea. Soon she was drawn into it, and we spent into late afternoon all just sitting around Ruby's room designing all sorts of things and contemplating various theoretical ideas. Not just for me; it branched out into ideas for future students that Qrow wrote down to bring up with his co-workers later. Ruby was excited by all of it, and Yang herself was a little interested by the sheer variety of things I came up with it. She brought up a question as we began to pack everything together.

"Hey Orion… this is cool and all, but how much of this do you actually plan on making?" I took a glance at her. "I mean, there's a lot of stuff here." I hummed, and shuffled a few papers.

"Well, the main weapon would be the halberd that Ruby started on, with this idea integrated into it." I took a few sheets and laid them next to each other. That was actually the trickiest idea, but it seemed like it'd work in theory. I took another few sketches. "These ones aren't really in the way, and can be used in tandem with everything else." A few more. "Multiple copies of this one, as it's rather small and I may need to replace them." And a final few. "And… these two." Yang blinked, taking them all in as Qrow finished writing down a few notes. Ruby pouted at me, however.

"Almost none of those are any good at a range." I just raised an eyebrow.

"Should they be? I'm not that accurate; I can hit a target, but anywhere specific on that target? No dice. For emergencies, aside from the second form of the halberd…" I quickly skimmed through the stack before pulling out one final set of sketches. "Two copies of this." Ruby blinked.

"A little overkill for someone not willing to fight Grimm, don't you think? I mean everything else could be explained by your bad luck with people who know to fight, but that thing is kinda destructive isn't it?" I just deadpanned at her, pointing at Yang.

"And she isn't?" Ignoring her squawk of indignation at being called out, I continued. "And I don't plan on carrying those with me; I'll keep those locked up in my room. I'd rather have them and not need them then then need them and not have them." Qrow looked up from his final notes.

"Well said. Were you planning on staying for dinner, Orion?" I carefully stacked together my 'final' ideas in a separate stack from everything else and set it aside to be moved to my room later, contemplating his question.

"Actually… if you don't mind, I'll be heading out to The Club again." Qrow raised an eyebrow, while Yang began bouncing in her seat and Ruby tilted her head curiously.

"And why do you know where that is?" I shrugged.

"Tukson had me do a delivery run. I met the owner, and he's not really a bad guy. Good conversation at least. I had an idea I'd like to talk to him about." Yang immediately jumped up from her seat.

"I could give you a ride!" At mine and Qrow's deadpan look, she just grinned smugly. "Do you honestly trust him to go out this late by himself and not get into trouble?" Shit, she won that one. Ruby piped up, distracting Qrow.

"What's The Club?" Qrow was distracted at figuring out the best way to answer the 14 year old with a scythe, and with a quick jerk of my head Yang and I slipped out of the room, leaving Qrow to Ruby's tender mercies.

"So you'll drive, huh? With what? I didn't see a second car anywhere, and I really doubt Qrow would appreciate you taking his." She excitedly shook her head, hair flying everywhere.

"Nope, I got something better!" At that she opened up the garage, clicking on the lights. "Orion, meet Bumblebee!" I looked down at what was unveiled and let a small smirk come on my face.

"Oh... this could be fun."

* * *

Yang… is not the greatest driver in the world. Not the worst… but she treats speed limits like suggestions. Which was kind of fun at least. We pulled up to The Club, and she turned off the bike, her keys disappearing inside of her chest. At my deadpan at seeing that, she shrugged.

"Anyone close enough to reach in there will get decked for trying." I considered that, opened my mouth to argue, then deflated.

"You know what? I'm just gonna go with it. Ah, by the way. The people here know me as Opal, so could you refer to me like that while we're here?" Yang looked like she was about to laugh. "Shush you, I know for a fact that not everything Junior does is legal, like hell I'll give him my… kind of real name. Not a word. Just call me Opal while we're in there, alright?" Yang nodded, and we both wandered up to Tony, who was covering the door again. I gave him a friendly wave.

"Tony! How's it going?" Tony looked up at my voice, and greeted me respectfully.

"Opal. It's been well." He turned his eyes towards Yang. "ID?" As Yang fished in her pocket for it, I quirked an eyebrow.

"And you didn't ask for mine because?" He shrugged, inspecting Yang's wallet as she pulled out her ID.

"You knew the boss." A gesture had Yang pocketing her wallet again. "You're good to enter, just don't touch anything alcoholic. If you do, we didn't give it to you." I deadpanned at him as Yang perked up.

"Really? Not even trying?" He shrugged uncomfortably.

"Lady has shotguns on her wrists." Ok, fair point. A quick arm clasping and we went on by and through the doors guarded by another two men, who gave a polite nod that I returned. Instantly we were blasted by the music that the DJ, who's name I picked up as Kuma, was playing.

**(-Play I burn – Yellow trailer-)**

Yang disappeared rapidly into the crowd, and I shook my head, knowing that I'd easily find her if I wanted to leave, and so wandered over to the bar. Taking a seat, I gestured at the bartender, who's name I still have yet to get, but was ignored as Junior popped up around him.

"Opal! Good to see you!" A handshake and Junior leaned on the counter. "Just came by to chat? Or for a drink?" Thankfully, I had some money from Qrow from earlier in the week, as he had ended up giving me more than I spent for food each day.

"A bit of both. I'll leave the drink to you, just don't clean out my wallet." Junior nodded and turned, glancing through several drinks. As he did so, I almost instantly felt a small chill at my back, along with a small warmth. I didn't bother turning as I found myself surrounded on both sides by the twins. Soooo lucky I could sense now, otherwise I'd be a little terrified that they had managed to sneak up on me.

"And what are _you_ doing back here?" That was from the chill, Melanie, meaning Miltia had the warmth. Good to know. I shifted my eyes to the twin in white, who was glaring at me while leaning on the counter.

"Getting a drink with a friend. As a paying customer. Someone that, you know, you _don't_ attack because they're on you're boss's good side?" A 'hmph' came from her as she stalked away, leaving the area to just me and Junior. And apparently Miltia, as she took the seat next to me. I shifted my eyes over the twin clad in red.

"Not going to follow your sister?" She shook her head. "Thought you both wanted to spill my guts." A quicker shake of the head. "Ah. Well, as you're at least willing to listen, I do apologize. I didn't mean to see everything I did that day, but to be fair your sister wasn't exactly polite to me." A short nod was all I got as acknowledgement for my apology, so I guessed I was forgiven by the red half? At that point Junior had finished making my drink.

"80 lien." Fishing that out of my wallet, I passed the required money to him and he slid me the drink, which I carefully sipped. Hm, not bad. "Said you wanted to chat?" I nodded, as Miltia took an apparent interest, though she masked it with her apathy. I could see it in her eyes, though, a dull glimmer. And I was cheating, because I could feel the interest from her and from the burly Aura in front of me. Tuning out everyone else was actually kind of easy, as I just focused on only detecting Auras to a certain amount. Melanie and Miltia easily outclassed the majority of the people here, as did Yang who I could find in the crowd without looking. Surprisingly, Junior did too, though I guessed he had that bat and knew how to use it for a reason.

"Yeah, just a thought I had yesterday that I decided to bring up with you. This place doesn't have an official name, does it?" At Junior's head shake, I continued. "I looked up your name. Hei Xiong means 'black bear', doesn't it?" A nod. I finished my thought. "Soo… why don't you name this place 'The Bear's Den'? You already have a bear theme." Junior thought for a second, then groaned and slammed his head on his forearms on the counter. Miltia just smirked at her boss.

"Why didn't I think of that?" I shrugged as he looked back up. "Right, I got a few things to do. You. You get free drinks up to a certain amount of lien each night. You need a favor or something, feel free to ask. I think you and I are going to be good friends. If you'll excuse me." I shrugged as he walked away, gesturing to a few of his men. I tilted my head to look at Miltia.

"You're rather quiet, aren't you? I know you do talk, I've heard stories." Miltia just shrugged. I quirked an eyebrow.

"Alright then, here's a question: who taught you?" At her perplexed look, I continued. "I can feel how much Aura you have, it's not a bad amount. And you serve at a high rank for Junior's business, so obviously you and your twin are a cut above everyone else aside from him." She shrugged again.

"Self-taught." I blinked. Really? That… was kind of impressive.

"Both of you?" A nod from the quiet girl. "And you unlocked your Auras yourselves?" Another nod. "That's… actually awesome. Like, damn. I think you could probably match some of the students at Beacon, and you're both self-taught? Nice." She blushed a little at the praise. I chuckled, turning back to my drink. As I slowly finished it, I could feel Yang approaching me. I spun in my chair to see the blond with a wide smile on her face.

"There you are Opal! And you got a girlfriend while I wasn't looking? I feel betrayed." Miltia began to glare at her and I sighed.

"Now Yang, what have I told you about this unreasonable jealousy you feel when you see me talking to other girls?" Miltia gave me a look as Yang just gaped at me. I laughed. "Relax, both of you. Yang, this is Miltiades, an executive worker here. Mil, this is Yang my roommate." Both relaxed at that, before Miltia tilted her head at me.

"Mil?" I shrugged, sliding the glass back as I stood.

"Quicker to say. You don't mind, do you?" Another shrug. Ah well. "I'll see you around. Come on Yang, you're driving." With that I followed the blond woman out, waving over my shoulder at Miltia. As we walked past, I could see Melanie was wandering around the dance floor, dancing in tune. Meh, she'll get over her grudge eventually. Yang and I walked outside and got onto her bike, her pulling out the keys as I settled in behind her.

"You make friends with some odd people, 'Opal'." I glowered at her back.

"You have no room to talk, miss 'Hair-Trigger Temper'." Before she could start the motorcycle she whirled to face me, stunned.

"Did you just-?" I cut her off.

"Don't we need to head back before Qrow takes your head off since you have school tomorrow?" A quick check of her scroll had her blanching.

"Oh crap, I completely forgot when I brought you out here!" I laughed as she rapidly turned back and revved the bike. It didn't surprise me at all that she blanked about that, but I decided it'd be funnier if she did bring me out here. I'd keep her from the drinks, so she could realize how she messed up. Yang turned rapidly and we were off down the street, the only sound being that of the bike underneath us.

_I can always use more friends. And at least Miltia is willing to talk. Kind of. Meh, Junior's at least somewhat nice. And hey, now it actually has a damn name._

**AN: We'll end there. So, my double update for you folks! Some thoughts before you go:**

**Weaponry: As said, I have multiple ideas. Like, a lot. Some of them I'll use, everything else is being tossed aside. Yeah I'll have multiple weapons, but only one really big one, the rest are small arms I can carry on my person. I don't have the time or mindset to focus on just one weapon, I prefer having options. **

**The Bear's Den: Credit to Interested Guest, who I responded to last chapter, for this idea name. It sounds perfect, and it fits, so I'm using, with credit given to him/her/them. Thank you so much!**

**Sensory Capabilites: A lot of you may get pissed at this. But I'll just point out what it is here. It's essentially an overlay of my normal ones. Aside from feeling people around in a set area, people I'm close to I can get a vague location on. I can also decipher surface emotions from that sense, and a vague idea on what type of person they are and maybe their semblance. The Grimm are capable of being sensed, they feel like voids in the world to me, rather jarring that will be when it pops up. Not much use in combat aside from vague intentions from my allies, as I am completely unable to sense the intentions of the Grimm, but I'll see some other uses of it later.**

**Soul binding: Yeah… go read "Soulbound" by Zealot. Once again, credit to him for the original idea. My twist on it is a bit less deep then his, and a bit more spread out. Orion's odd sensing is abnormal entirely from the normal binding process, so he feels things differently. So yeah, enjoy.**

**"Hair Trigger Temper": If I'm the first person who thought of it, shame on you. That was an easy one.**

**Next time! More tales of the book store, and more time spent at The Bear's Den! And maybe we'll see another character appear! I'm stuck between a brunette, a redhead, or a heterochromatic character, what do you folks think? Please review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**RRC: I seem to have more reviews. Guess I'm doing something right. Let's see here…**

** Chris: Yeah, I kind of had mixed feelings writing it, but I started and figured "Screw it, I'm going to finish this." I'm glad that it seems to be picking up a little, but it's still going to be kind of slow, I have a LOT of things to cover for a year's time, and I'd rather not time-skip more than a week at any given point.**

** Yoshtar: Haven't played any Monster Hunter, sad to say. A quick check of the wiki makes it look interesting, mind, but it doesn't entirely suit me. Thanks for the idea. And I haven't read "A Rose by Any Other Name", though I know it's there. If it is similar, my apologies to the author for mimicking a part of it.**

** Interested Guest: You… you need to get a profile so I can better address you. Like wow. Ok, thoughts. Orion's sensing is actually going to be associated with his Semblance, this is just a passive effect of it. It isn't the ability to see, not really. That's how his mind translates it though if something he can sense is within his field of vision. Otherwise he just feels their Aura, which is their personality if we don't know their semblance, or their semblance if we do. It's why it's vague outlines through solid objects, and it's only applicable to people. The Grimm will manifest as a sort of void in his perception, which is just as telling.**

**I'll agree with you on the tropes, except Yang. She might be a genki girl, but I see her more as just using it as a mask, as she gets rather serious from time to time. Yeah, blame Rooster Teeth for that, not me, I'm just writing what I think would suit them from what we have seen.**

**Really? No one else has them living at the club? I figured **_**someone**_** must have done it. Cool. That may be a possibility, but I doubt it. Junior's men are local, though his information services are not. He himself is a local of Vale. Orion may or not get that impression as he associates more with the Bear Crew.**

**Twins: Hmm… yeah I've actually had a few thoughts about them, but that would be telling now wouldn't it? X3. For now, I'll just say that they look to Junior as an older brother figure/boss, and he looks to them as sisters. And as for their style… notice how they're quite acrobat and quick to attack, but not so good at actually blocking? Yeah we're gonna notice that, and that's actually going to pop up later in how they train. I have no idea what they're Semblances will be, check the AN about that actually.**

** Guest: We be talking…**

**Alright then, that should be everything. I flipped a couple of coins, so the character we meet has been decided due to chance! And because no one left a comment on who they wanted to see me deal with next… Meh. On with the story!**

**Settling in, Strengthening Ties**

"Oi Orion."

I looked up from my book on Dust. My several books, actually, that are scattered around the counter and open in various places. My idea in theory should work according to Qrow, but we had no clue for sure. In the meantime, I'd be doing a lot of research into the nature and use of Dust. On the bright side, my new sensory ability was useful, as I could feel someone before they even opened the door. And keep perfect track of Tukson while he's within the store. He had recently left the office and wandered around the store, taking a brief inventory of what was in front of him so he could adjust in his head the digital inventory we have on the terminal and what his mind has arrayed.

"What's up?" At his words he had moved back to the counter, and pulled an envelope from his pocket and passed it to me.

"Payday. I'll be paying you every Monday, Tuesday at the latest." I accepted the envelope and made it disappear in my jacket. He blinked. Yeah, I know, my jacket's awesome, has a bunch of pockets EVERYWHERE. I have plans for this jacket…

"Works for me. Any new deliveries coming today?" Tukson shook his head, deciding not to approach the topic of my hammerspace jacket and continue with his day.

"Nope. One of our regulars might be stopping by in a few, but that's about it. On that note, I'll be leaving the store to you again." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"You've been doing that a lot with a guy who's just a newbie." He chuckled.

"Well today, I have a legitimate reason. I'm going to be meeting with Junior for a few things, and you're 'paying customer' excuse only works if the club is open, otherwise…" I grimaced as he made his point. I had explained to him what had happened on my delivery, and last night, once he got over laughing at me about it. While last night showed that Miltia had no ill will towards me, the same could not be said of her sister, who would probably relish the chance to tear my head off. Or cut it with those damn heels.

"Right. I appreciate you not sending me into a hazardous area boss. See you in a bit." He gave a little wave before heading out, the jingle of the bell signifying the door closing behind him. I looked back down at my books and sighed. Yeah, first thing on my day off I'm getting myself a damn scroll, I have… a quick mental calculation told me 4000 lien, I can definitely get a scroll with that. I need to compare and compile this information… I turned a page in one of the books describing the various forms of Dust, from the powdered form to the crystals. Hmm, maybe…

I got lost in the information, comparing several books for hard facts and theories formed from multiple sources. I needed to figure this out for my main weapon, everything after this will be easy in comparison. Another page turned, a shuffling of the book, and then I paused. Closing my eyes, I focused on that newly born sense of mine. While most people barely register aside from the fact that they're there, anyone with their Aura's unlocked are a lot more noticeable. Tukson hadn't had his unlocked, but I'm around him a lot, so I got used to him. On the other hand, despite my rarely seeing Qrow, I can feel him anywhere in the house due to how much he had. Right now I could feel someone with impressive reserves approaching. They felt like… shadows? That's the only way my mind could transcribe it. I opened my eyes again and looked up a second before the door opened, the bell jingling.

"Hello! Welcome to Tukson's book trade, home to every book under the sun! How can I help you?" In front of me and closing the door was a young brunette woman. She wore a compilation of black and white, with a black bow atop her head and golden eyes. She blinked at seeing me.

"Where's Tukson?" I shrugged, moving a book away from the terminal so I could reach it easier. Why did it not surprise me that Blake Belladonna was a regular at the book trade owned by a White Fang member?

"Out talking with an old friend. He hired me about a week ago so he could take care of his own affairs more while leaving the shop open." Blake nodded, calmly walking up to the counter.

"I see. I should have a few books reserved for me." I hummed, deftly manipulating the terminal as I pretended to ignore her eyes sweeping across the books laid out.

"Name?" Her attention went back to me.

"Blake Belladonna." I nodded absently as I began scanning the file, her own attention returning to the books. "Quite a bit about Dust here. A Hunter?" I shook my head as I finally found and opened the proper file, eyes scanning the contents.

"Just someone who likes to be prepared. It's honestly more for my current roommates, but I was curious as well about something. No one had a definite answer, so I'm building a best guess." Another few keys on the terminal. "Alright then Miss Belladonna, we seem to have multiple books in reserve for you. As well, Tukson left a little note here that there's a book behind the "Autobiography of a Hero" by Peter Port that you may be interested in." She had a confused look on her face but wandered over immediately, showing long familiarity with the place. I crouched down and began assembling the books held in reserve, stacking them on a clear spot on the counter before a rapid staccato of heels on floor had me standing back up, another few books in hand. Blake was back with a bright blush on her face, book held up.

"What is this supposed to be?!" I gave a slow appraising look at the book in her hand, calmly setting the ones in my own on the top of the pile.

"'Ninjas of Love', I assume. A literary work with multiple mentions in the realm of erotica, as well as a few non-erotica ones. Supposedly rather deep, when you look past the excess smut within it." She was glaring at my nonchalance about the fact my boss was essentially recommending porn to her. On the inside, I couldn't stop laughing.

"And why, pray tell, would Tukson recommend this?" I shrugged, keeping calm outwardly.

"The boss has a very… odd, sense of humor at times. He either figured that you're reaction would be hilarious, or he figured that you'd be able to look past the explicit details and focus on the literary elements." I paused, letting her take that in. "Or he feels you need to loosen up. Hell if I know, I just started working here." She returned to glaring at me, so I shrugged. "Did you want it or not?"

I could see the struggle playing out on her face. Ignore a recommendation for a good book from a friend, or buy porn from a book store in front of a complete stranger. In the end, her inner bibliophile won out, and she put in on the top of the stack. "I'll take it. Let Tukson know I'll pay him back for this, though." I shrugged again.

"Go for it. I'll even be nice enough to not warn him." At her look, I gave her a blank stare. "He abandoned me to the tender mercies of three teenage girls wanting to go clothes shopping." She began chuckling at me as I continued to deadpan, before I turned back and flipped through a few files. "Alright, it seems as if all of the reserved ones have been paid for, did you want to pay for your addition with lien or store credit?"

"Credit."

A few more keys tapping. "Alright, you're all set Miss Belladonna. Have a pleasant day, and do please tell me when you're getting back at my boss so I can get the hell out of the dodge." She gave a feral little smile at that as I began putting the books into a bag for her, putting the erotica first so it'd be buried under the rest. She then went to a neutral expression as she thought of something.

"How would I get ahold of you?" I finish putting the books away and hand her the bag, which she accepts easily.

"Leave a message here with Tukson for Orion, or leave one with Junior for Opal. Either way I'll get it." She tilted her head to the side curiously.

"Which one is your actual name?" I chuckled, beginning to rearrange the books in front of me.

"Orion, but Opal sounds better to me so I use it as a bit of a nickname. Plus a test of Junior's info gathering abilities, see how long until he figures out my actual one." She nodded at that.

"Alright then Orion. I'll endeavor to leave you that message. I'll see you around." At that she walked out, leaving me to an empty store and a bunch of research on Dust. And a lot of information to rapidly relieve review.

_Blake Belladonna. Black of team RWBY, cat faunus, current member? Ex-member? Of White Fang. Wielder of Gambol Shroud, Semblance involves cloning oneself. Bibliophile, wise for her age, incredibly agile. Someone to watch my words around. And for now Ms. Belladonna will serve as a form of address. I'll probably be seeing more of her in the time to come, considering Tukson's mention of her being a regular and her having a ridiculous amount of store credit._

Oh well. Back to my readings…

* * *

My eye twitched. It twitched again.

"… I guess ensuring I wasn't in range of payback counts, but really?"

In front of me was a closed sign. More specifically, in the front door of the book trade was a closed sign with a little envelope under it. Yesterday, Tukson had finally returned from whatever his business with Junior was, and a few more hours later I had headed home. Getting there, I had a quiet dinner with Qrow, as the sisters had eaten early and locked themselves in their respective rooms to deal with schoolwork. After that, Qrow started teaching me how to put Aura into unarmed strikes, which was going to be the lesson last time until the sensory stuff happened. I _can_ do it currently, but it requires a lot of focus, so I need more practice. Get up this morning, head to work, only to find that it was closed. _With a suspicious looking envelope._ I reached out and snagged it. As I read further, my eye began to twitch even more, extending to both eyes.

Orion,

Tukson says he's sorry that he wasn't able to give you prior notice, but that the shop wouldn't be open today, as he's rather tied up. So, you have the day off. He'll see you tomorrow, if I decide to let him go.

-Blake

P.S. Tell no one that I have that book. Or there shall be untold horrors in your future.

I facepalmed. "God damnit…. Well, guess I may as well make use of my day and go get a scroll…"

* * *

So…. 4000 lien. I actually only needed half of that to get a top-level scroll. By top-level, I mean like government level. I didn't even need that, really, so right now I was just figuring out what type of scroll I wanted. There were several in front of me, ranging from the one-handed types, kind of like phones, Yang had one, to the ones that was shown a lot in the show. All sorts of things, and the shopkeeper… was just reading her own damn scroll. Freaking part timers… As I was browsing, I felt a presence approaching. Huh… glass? A reflection? It felt like something reflecting the world… Oh. _Shit._

As I thought that, I felt a tap on my back. I turned. Blinked. Looked down. _Holy crap she's tiny. I forgot about that._ Staring up at me were a pair of heterochromatic eyes, complemented a bizarre mix of pink, brown, and white hair and clothing. Neopolitan, Torchwick's surprisingly skilled partner. She had a cheerful smile, however, and her umbrella was only held loosely in her grasp. I tilted my head down to her, remaining calm.

"Yes?" She made some gestures above my head. I blinked, side-stepped, and let her point at a particular scroll that was rather high on the shelf. "Aah. Do you want me to grab that down for you?" A cheerful nod caused me to reach up and pull down the object in particular. A quick scan told me that it was actually fairly basic; no games or anything, just phone service, Dustnet, Aura checker, and something I would equate to Microsoft Office. Huh, that's… actually all I was looking for. I passed it to her, reaching up and grabbing my own. At the tilt of her own head, I explained.

"I just needed something basic, but I couldn't find one without the all fancy little upgrades and the like, you know? I guess they put it up there so they flashier ones could draw attention and they could make more money." An understanding nod came from her as we both wandered over to the counter. "So… you're rather quiet for someone who seems rather bubbly. Do you talk?" A rapid nod, before some gestures that I translated to *sometimes.* I halted mid-step and looked straight at her, as she innocently blinked her eyes, switching their colors. "Ok, how'd you do that?" I could feel _something_ shift around me, something of her working. Wait, she had illusions. Did she really-

Her eyes widened a touch and she made a few more gestures, but this time they didn't mean anything. A second later though… *You could tell what I was doing?* I rapidly shook my head. "Ok, that's… odd. I could tell you were doing something, and I could somehow understand you better, but that's about it." She bounced in place, looking rather excited as she opened her mouth, but again no sound came out. But one again, the world shifted a touch. *Someone who can understand! Anyone else I tried this with couldn't actually understand me fully.* Gaah, that was weird. But it made her happy… and I really don't need an enemy. I tilted my head.

"You're doing something with your Aura, aren't you? I'm… a lot more sensitive to Aura than most people, so maybe that's why I can understand your… thoughts? Words?" A shrug from her. *My meaning, would be appropriate.* She gestured at herself grandly, before pointing at her color scheme. *I'm Neopolitan, but please call me Neo. Who are you?* I mentally shook myself this time. This is how it's going to be? Fine. "Opal. I work at Tukson's." A curious tilt. *Really now? Didn't know the puma liked humans. Oh wait…* I looked at her, she seemed a little annoyed. I sighed and waved her off as we approached the counter, causing me to watch my speech.

"I know who he is, but he doesn't know that I do. I'd be careful though, Neo." She turned to me as the salesgirl rung up her scroll, curiosity in her eyes. "You're not used to people understanding you, and from what little interaction I've had with Junior, I can tell that you know things you probably shouldn't tell others." She pouted at me before turning back to pay for her purchase. She stepped away, scroll in hand, as I stepped up and started to pay for mine. *For someone who talks rather freely, you seem to be of similar temperament.* I shrugged without looking her way, handing over 1000 lien from my wallet and accepting my scroll back, slipping it and the receipt in my pocket. I turned and gestured with my head. "You listen, you learn. Shall we continue this elsewhere?" Neo considered, then nodded.

* * *

*So, why does someone with little combat training have quite the substantial Aura and an acute sensory ability?* We had retreated to a little coffee shop down the street. I had stayed near her mainly because I had accidentally stirred her curiosity, and getting away couldn't end well until she was satisfied. So, playing along. I sipped my water glass, closing my eyes briefly as I did so to scan the area. No one in range of hearing… Opening my eyes, I set my glass down.

"My roommates at the moment are a Hunter and his two in-training nieces. You pick up a few things, and they're rather adamant about teaching me themselves." She tilted her head and gave me a winning smile. "No I'm not telling you anything else, I know better. For someone who acts like you however… You're quite dangerous, aren't you?" An innocent blink of her eyes. *Who, me?* I snorted. "You have a Semblance, and you carry that little umbrella for a reason." A flicker of her eyes as they swapped colors, the right a brown the left a pink. *Now how do you figure that?* I shrug.

"Since coming to Vale, I've noticed something. And that would be that everyone carries what they do for a reason. A basic example would be what I've heard about a teacher at Beacon, one Doctor Oobleck." She sipped on her coffee, eyes curious. *Oh?* "He's a Hunter, and every Hunter or Huntress carries their weapon on them. But nobody ever sees his unless they've been next to him in combat. That's all I'll say. My turn for a question." She nodded at that, sipping her coffee. I slowly leaned forward, steepling my fingers as I stared at the odd woman.

"I can feel how strong you are. Junior and his enforcers are a cut above the rest of their crew, but you're a step above them. I'd say you're possibly beyond a few other people I know, who are all powerful in their own right. Now why would a woman such as you need that much strength?" She gave me a cold little smile, one that told me she knew _exactly_ where she and I stood in respect to one another. *Huntresses are not the only power in the world. Do you really want the answer to that question?* I pretended to consider that. I quite honestly didn't. "Yeah… no." A quick glance at the clock had me finishing my water as I stood. "My apologies, Neo, but I must head out. Need to go be with my roommates and all. I suppose I'll talk to you again?" Another cheerful little smile. *I wouldn't be against that. It's rare for me to actually be able to carry a conversation anymore.* And with that her form flashed and disappeared, leaving behind a little note with a string of numbers, her coffee taken with her. I took up the note and stashed it with everything else in my jacket, closing my eyes.

And then I sat back down and slumped in my seat. That… could've been bad. Neo kicked the shit out of Yang, who was still kicking me around in _sparring._ She's also partnered with a _criminal mastermind_, in the form of Torchwick. If I made a mistake, she could've easily killed me, and probably would have if I offended her or spoke too much. Speak too little, though, and she might've just hospitalized me for the fun of it. Which, you know, would've been very bad as well. But now a question was in my mind, one that I had started contemplating when I realized who I have met so far…

And that would be, should I keep my interactions separate from everyone? The people I associate with now are all in their own little groups, their own social circles, their own troubles. Qrow, Yang, Ruby: my roommates, and teacher/students at Signal. Quite obviously on the right of the side law. Ren/Nora, trainees from home, also on the right side of the law. Tukson/Blake, who probably weren't but I have no evidence that I can't attribute to knowledge I shouldn't have. Junior/Malachites, who are clearly grey on the matters of law and order. And now Neo, who is technically an unknown, but in truth is an associate of a man who will soon become Vale's most wanted man. He isn't yet; I check the news, but he will be sometime. All of them are separate from one another, and should I keep it that way?

… Yeah, I probably should. There's no telling how much damage they would cause if I outed them to one another early. Maybe introducing Nora and Ren to the sisters wouldn't end badly, but the rest? Neo is _psychotic_, and incredibly strong; she'd kill me if I outed her to law-abiding citizens. Blake and Tukson are White Fang, and I shouldn't know that, but I do, and they're unfriendly with humans generally. I get away with associating with Tukson at least due to the fact that Velvet vouches for me. Everyone else… not so much. Melanie already wants to tear me a new one, and I know that Junior would be less than forgiving if he found a Hunter snooping around if I mention any specifics of his work to Qrow. Yeah, no.

I sighed, thumping my head on the table. My current combat level is above that of your standard mook from this world, above Jaune Arc actually come to think of it due to having my Aura unlocked and some decent combat instincts, regardless of me lacking a weapon. On the other side of that coin, everyone I associate with can flatten me aside from _maybe_ the bear crew, and even with them I'd be pressed to walk away uninjured, let alone hitting them or even winning. What's also sad is that they're not even that strong themselves, aside from Neo and Qrow: they're _students._ I had decided early on to tread lightly, but apparently I didn't get the damn memo, and my luck apparently is still incredibly bipolar. I mess up what I say, and I may get investigated by superhuman beings on one side, or outright killed on the other. I thumped my head on the table again.

"Fuuuuck…" Well, ok, let's look at the positives. For one, I'm a newbie in Vale, not really looked at too much. Yang, Ruby, and Qrow know my origins, and don't care, and are actively training me so I'll eventually be able to fend off Grimm. Odds are they'll push me to match or exceed the bear crew. I'm friendly with Junior and Miltia, though not Melanie, but at the very least Junior can find things out for me if I get worried. I'm currently in the process of developing a weapon and figuring out my Semblance, both force multipliers of their own. Neo, while not what I would call a friend, isn't really hostile, so there's a plus. Ish. And best of all, aside from Qrow, no actual Hunters or Huntresses actually know about me aside from vague mentions of Qrow's nieces' roommate. Which means I can avoid really bad scrutiny. So not that bad, honestly; just my luck is bipolar as all hell, and I need to watch what I say or I'll provoke events I _really_ don't want to provoke. Actually…

I lifted my head, and took a sip of my glass, contemplating. Speaking of events, one thing sticking prominently in my mind now is the time when Yang, in her trailer for the show, positively wrecked The Bear's Den. I… kinda want to avoid that, namely because I'm friendly with them and I get free drinks. So… time to plan how to subvert that, all the while not mentioning to Yang that I know her mother's missing and she's searching for her. Great, now I feel like I'm attempting to mimic Moriarty or something…

* * *

"I'm home!" I left the café, discarding my plans and essentially saying _wing it, just watch your words_ and headed home, arriving early. It was about four, so the others had only been home for a bit. Relaxing on the couch was Yang while Zwei, who was previously on her lap, now bouncing around me, barking. At my call she lifted a hand and waved at me.

"Hey! You're home kind of early. Slow day?" I shook my head, plopping down next to her as Zwei hopped up onto my own lap so I could lather affection on him.

"No work, actually. Boss was apparently too busy to open the store today, so I spent it wandering around Vale." At her look I held up my hands. "Not at The Bear's Den, I know better than to pop up there during the day. Actually I picked up a scroll while I was out." So saying I fished in my jacket for it and held it up, only to have it taken by Yang. "Hey."

Yang had already opened it up and was wandering through it, pausing for a moment at the contacts list. "Really? No games or anything? That's sad Orion." After saying that, she typed a few things in before passing it back to me, showing she had added herself to my contacts list on it. Hmm, will need to add Ruby and Qrow later today. I mock scowled at her.

"I have plenty to do as is to keep me occupied. Just as you should with things like say, homework?" She gave me an innocent look as I snorted. "I know they assign you more than practical work, Yang. If it was just raw combat ability to make a Hunter or Huntress, there'd be a lot more wandering around, don't you think?" She deflated at that.

"Well, why do I know need to know history aside from where Grimm frequent and the best way to kill them?" I blinked. Surely she knew that much?

"Because you may end up fighting other humans?" She gave me an alarmed look. Well crap, apparently she hasn't quite pieced that together. "Surely you don't think you spar with other students just to keep in shape? And you and Ruby helped a lot against those idiots last week." She waved her hands frantically.

"That was just self-defense! Why would I ever fight Hunter or Huntress level combatants?" I facepalmed. Naïve Yang. Great. I slowly raised my head.

"Qrow home?" A nod from her, still looking a bit bewildered. "Go get him. Story time, Yang, grab Ruby as well." As she stood and went off to do that, I leaned back and sighed.

_Why do _I _have to be the one to explain this? Oh well, better that _someone _does, or they might hesitate in the future._

**AN: And we'll end there for now. So, we have seen the introduction of two more characters: Blake, current member of the White Fang and regular at the book trade, and Neo, unknown criminal worker who rarely speaks! As well as some heavy introspection by Orion and his current situation. Thoughts now:**

**Blake: Yeah, I decided to introduce her rather early. But she'll only show up on a weekly basis in world, so she'll be more of a sideshow for now. Yes she did exact vengeance upon Tukson, she's a **_**cat,**_** she's a touch mischievous. Nothing permanent, but she got her point across. That'll pop up later.**

**Neo: So yeah… Neo is interesting as a character and all, but when you consider what type of person that actually would be? **_**She's completely fucking terrifying.**_** So yeah, I'm a little wary of her. She's a perpetually cheerful person with a bit of a sadistic side and a shady background. As for her method of communication… she'll normally communicate to other via typing on her scroll, similar to Celty of Durarara, or by gestures accompanied with extremely subtle use of her Semblance to get the point across. Illusions are mind-affecting, after all, so it should be no surprise that they can enhance communication. As for me directly understanding her… that's a combination of my sensitivity to Aura and her frequent use of her Semblance in conversation. No one else will communicate in that way with her, as no one else has my sensitivity. She may talk later, when we actually know her voice, but until then, she'll be mute. Mainly played for comedic value later odds are.**

**Orion's introspection: Yeah… I kind of debated putting this in. But I decided to to get a point across. Orion knows **_**exactly**_** how badly things can get if he associates with the cast too much. He's met several students or people at a decent level of combat power, and they all can **_**flatten**_** him if they so choose. Currently, with the sparring practice with Yang and Aura lessons from Qrow, he is a cut above your average mook in that world, and above Jaune simply because of Aura use. However, of all he's met, he's completely terrified of Qrow and Neo, as those two have killed before, and are on a completely different level. **

**For a better example of that… Neo **_**wasted**_** Yang. Yang, the woman who completely wrecked Junior, the Twins, the Henchman, and **_**the bar itself,**_** all **_**by herself.**_** Junior and the Twins, as stated, are not pushovers in any sense of the word, but they barely did a thing to Yang. Following that, Neo fled from Raven as soon as she realized who she was against, making me assume Raven is a proper Huntress in terms of combat ability. So, to come full circle: Yang can thrash me **_**while still holding back**_**¸ who can get thrashed by Neo, who ran from Raven, who is roughly Qrow's level. Understand why he's wary around the man?**

**So yeah, I'm surrounded by a lot of people who could mess me up if I'm not careful. As I grow stronger, that'll be less of a fear, but it'll still be there to a certain extent. *cough* anyway, continuing from before, he knows people on both sides of the battle lines. Which could be bad, as it could end with him in the crossfire or endangering one or the other side just by association, which he wants to avoid as well. Fun times, isn't it?**

**Next chapter, we'll have a discussion between me, Qrow, Ruby, and Yang about history repeating itself, and why exactly they're trained to fight humans as well. Following that will be some more at The Bear's Den the next day, and perhaps a conversation with Tukson?**

**A final note: Much thanks goes to Veil Hasoc who has agreed to serve as my beta-reader, starting with this very chapter! Thank him for any improvements in writing from here onwards, folks.**

**So Read! Review! Tread lightly when you associate with both sides of the law!**


	14. Chapter 14

**RRC: Hello again my readers! Just a quick note before everything else: updates are going to be sporadic, because again, I really don't want to keep a schedule. However, I feel that between me and the proofreading of Veil, we should be able to knock out one chapter a week. Heh, fun fact: This part is the final part written out of the entire chapter, yet it's the first part you guys see. Just to give you your minutes of fame of course. Let's see…**

**About Orion being uncomfortable with psychotics: So… ok, you're a bit odd. But to the point: It's not that he's uncomfortable around psychotics, it's that he's uncomfortable around psychotics who can kill him easier than breathing. Slight difference.**

** Raidentensho: He might, but RT seems to like having a semi-normal person along with the crew. And don't worry about Orion: he's going to have several tricks up his sleeves, he's doing a lot of research in his spare time for a reason. Course I'm not going to tell you what all they are, but you'll see them when they appear.**

** James Shadows: Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?**

** Misplaced Reader: Ah, good, now I can refer to you properly. Unfortunate that the update didn't happen on the date you wanted, but eh. Like I said, I update when I can. Let's see…**

**Blake: I picture her as quiet and contemplative most of the time, but perfectly willing to be mischievous if given the opportunity or motive. Blake will be a, in here, weekly appearance, so you'll see more of her as we go on.**

**Neo: Yeah, odds are she'll keep him secret because he intrigues her. Keep in mind, no one can understand Neo like Orion does, due to it being a combination of factors. That will keep her interest. Orion is wary of her, but isn't against associating with her. So long as he stays in public whenever he does.**

**Introspection: Yeah I write these occasionally, but I feel it necessary. While I know what goes through Orion's head during these events, and everything else, you probably don't, so I write these out occasionally to let you glimpse into what he thinks as he survives. Yeah the point right now is to derail the Yellow trailer as best as I can, because I like Junior's bar.**

** kash: Here it is. Let me know what you think, yes?**

** edus: He doesn't have bad luck, it's more… extremely sporadic and bipolar. The trick is taking advantage of the patches of good karma to try and survive the bad… kudos to anyone who outlines the good and the bad.**

**That'll be everything, time to continue.**

**Understanding is Difficult**

After Yang had grabbed her relatives and brought them in, we spread out across the living room. Ruby and Yang sat together at one couch, with Qrow sitting opposite at the other couch. I sat in a chair between the two groups. Ruby was curious as to what we'd be talking about; I could see it on her face. Yang's face still had a touch of confusion, and Qrow had a blank expression as always. Finally Ruby spoke up, losing to her curiosity.

"So what'd you want to talk to us about, Orion?" It was rather rare that I'd seek out all of them at once, aside from at mealtimes. Each of them had different interests and knowledge, so I interacted with each of them differently. I leaned forward, placing my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands, staring intently at the girls.

"You two… want to be Huntresses, right?" A dual nod. "You want to fight monsters, save people?" Another nod. "Just the Grimm?" Two hesitant nods, as Qrow seemed to understand what I was getting at, shifting in his seat and getting my attention.

"This is a subject normally covered at Beacon during their first year." Ah, well that at least tells me that it _is_ covered at a certain point. I inclined my head towards him.

"Be that as it may, my own history, or rather the history of a different world I have access to, may help get the point across easier." Qrow considered, and then slowly nodded. I shifted my attention back to the confused sisters, drawing in a deep breath and releasing it. "Alright girls, time for a quick lesson about being a Huntress, from me this time." At that I had their undivided attention, both girls always eager to learn more about their chosen profession. I decided that the best way to make my point was, indeed, going to be some basic facts of my world.

"So, I mentioned before that my world has no Grimm to threaten us, right?" Two rapid nods. "Well, we do still have wild animals, acts of nature such as drought, tornados, volcanos, and tsunamis. Tell me, can you make a guess as to what the number one overall cause of death is for humans from my world?" Both seemed to consider it, and also consider my personal familiarity with certain aspects of their world such as Dustnet and guns. I gave them about half a minute to think on it, before I spoke up again.

"It's other humans."

"WHAT?" Both of them seemed horrified at that fact. I suppose it made sense: here, they had to band together, every last person, to survive against the soulless horde. The thought of humans killing each other is probably an abhorrent concept. I sighed.

"Yep. Humans spurred by greed, for money or power, and by hate, of those who we don't know, have a higher kill count overall than anything else. A good example would be the two World Wars we had. The death toll of the first one alone is above _16 million._" Ruby looked shattered at hearing this.

"But… but why?" I leaned back, straightening my posture.

"As I said, human desire tends to be the number one cause for such things. When two people argue, it's a fight. When two groups argue, it's a battle." My face hardened. "When two governments disagree violently, it leads to war. The World Wars are what happens when multiple governments side against one another. The closest you'd probably get would be if the various lands of Remnant truly fought each other. Human desire, while it can lead to wondrous things, can also lead to the darkest of inventions. The desire to live and help others can lead to medicine, how to defend oneself. The desire for power, for something you do not possess, can turn that method of self-defense into a method of harming others, convert medicinal herbs to drugs that can lead to self-destruction." I leaned forward again.

"So, yes. Hunters and Huntresses are taught how to fight monsters, to make things a better place for us common folk. Not every monster is literal, however; some humans are just as bad as the Grimm you train to fight. That's why you spar with other students: not just reflex training and exercise, but preparation to fight other humans if necessary." Qrow nodded.

"It is true. I have dealt with more than my fair share of terrible people, both those in power and common grunts of the underworld. Most of the time, you can simply subdue them and hand them over to the authorities; however, sometimes, they are the authority, which makes it trickier. However, as Orion observed, our world is a bit more desperate for survival, so we only truly support those who have mankind's survival truly in mind." Left unsaid by Qrow, though I certainly got it, was that sometimes subduing went beyond mere incapacitation. That weapon of his is designed to be lethal in most cases for a reason, and what I feel from him in terms of Aura… yeah, he's killed more than his fair share. He's avoiding mentioning it, though, and as these two are his family, I won't bring it up. I think he can tell I already know, anyway. I spoke up.

"A pretty basic example would be The Bear's Den." The trio blinked in confusion. I rolled my eyes. "Junior's nightclub, he renamed it recently. Anyway, while the majority of his henchmen are essentially common folk with a gun or blade, his personal enforcers and he himself can put up a decent fight against, say, someone at Yang's level in terms of combat. They're not Huntsmen, but they're fairly powerful in their own right. And they're in the grey area of the law; what happens when you come across a full-blown criminal who can match wits and strength with say someone like your uncle here? And while they may not have access to forges like those of your school, they're not incapable of crafting their own lethal and personal weaponry." Coming to mind instantly was the Melodic Cudgel, Roman's personal weapon, and Junior's own bat-bazooka hybrid he has. Ruby tilted her head to look at me.

"What about you?" I chuckled.

"Nah, while I'm a step above your average person thanks to you guys, I'd get flattened by anyone who'd pose even the most remote challenge to a Huntsmen one on one. But will you girls be ok with that? Fighting bad guys as well as monsters?" Yang seemed to perk up at that, and gave a fist pump, smiling cockily.

"Of course! It doesn't matter who it is, if putting them behind bars will help make the world a better place, then I'll even throw the first punch!" Qrow chuckled at Yang's enthusiasm while Ruby reaffirmed it, and the slight awkwardness blew over as we chatted a bit more about the differences between fighting other people and fighting Grimm before I decided to get back to my original point of why this had been brought up.

"Ruby, Yang." At my shift in tone, I had their immediate attention. "The reason why I brought this up was because Yang questioned the importance of history." Yang just chuckled nervously at her uncle's mild scowl. "There was a saying where I'm from: those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. In my world was a vicious cycle of war and peace, and I was lucky enough to be born during a time of peace. So are you girls. However, if you repeat the mistakes made in the past, then that time of peace will be over. Do you understand?" Both of them nodded solemnly. At that, I nodded back, and then decided to change the topic. "So, on a brighter note, who's up for dinner? I'll cook." Yang and Ruby just blinked, then spoke in unison.

"You can cook?" I mock-glared at them; at least Qrow wasn't doubting my ability!

"Of course I can: it's a necessity when you move away from home." They both looked rather disbelieving. I snorted, and came to my feet, rolling up imaginary sleeves. "All right nonbelievers, allow me to show you the error of your ways…."

* * *

So, that was a thing. Proved to Ruby and Yang that I can indeed cook (hah!), and I also mentioned to Ruby that I can bake too, so next time we both have a day off I'm apparently going to be puppy-dog pouted into making cookies for her. Meh, I'll look up a few things… The next day led me to the front door of work and I opened up to find Tukson talking quietly with a customer. I waved at him casually as his eyes flicked towards me before heading to a stack of unsorted books by the shelves, starting to go through them as Tukson finished with his customer. I had just sorted the books into category when the bell jingled again, Tukson approaching me signaling that would be the customer who left, not a new one. I stood up and turned to him, smirking.

"Have fun on your little vacation, boss?" Tukson just scowled. "That is entirely your fault for recommending an erotica to a 16 year old girl. On that note, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Tukson shook his head, sighing exasperatedly. "I figured she'd skip it entirely whenever anything inappropriate came up, not tie me up with that damnable ribbon of hers when I was sleeping. Regardless, do you mind coming in tomorrow to make up for yesterday? I have more things than expected to deal with due to Blake's… vexation, so I'd appreciate it if you did." I shrugged.

"Sure, I'd rather make up the hours and get paid anyway. Go on boss, I'll watch over the shop; it is Wednesday after all." Tukson clapped me on the shoulder in gratitude, before heading out into Vale, the door jingling behind him. Humming, I began to put away the sorted books, wondering what this day would bring.

* * *

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every- no. No no no no _no. _What the hell. Why are you here? _Why are you at my work?_" The reason for my vehement denial of the situation was wearing a white dress, dangerous heels, and an irritated scowl on her face. I know she worked for Junior, why the hell was she at my work, it's the day, she should be sleeping for her night shift damnit!

"I'm not happy about being here either, but Junior said he placed an order with Tukson and assigned me to pick it up. So hurry up and go grab him so I don't have to resist the urge to dice you into pieces." Fuck, really? Tukson, you asshole, I am so going to get you back for this.

"Look, as much as I'd love to get far _far _away from you, Tukson isn't here. And no, you can't wait here, as I assume you have better things to do for the next-" I paused, glanced at the clock on my scroll, then continued, "five hours until he gets back and I get off, aside from waiting here for him. With me, who you apparently want to maim. Please don't try that here, by the way: it'd ruin the books, and some of these are expensive." Her eye twitched.

"So the books are worth more than your life now, asshole? Don't want to get blood all over your boss's collection?" I snorted.

"Hell no, bitch; you assume I'd stand still and let you hit me. I'd be hiding behind pretty much everything in this store, that's a lot of shields I can go through, and I can guarantee you that Junior would be sent the bill for all the destroyed books. 200 lien says it'd come out of your paycheck too." Melanie's scowl darkened.

"Bullshit." I raised an eyebrow at her- clearly she didn't realize that just because she could fight and I barely could didn't mean I couldn't make her life hell.

"Your twin doesn't wish violence towards me, and I'm in Junior's good graces. Just by talking. You really think I can't pin any damages caused on you?" She let out a 'hmph' and looked away, clearly irritated. Screw you, bitch; you started this over a simple damn mistake!

"Miltia's always been a softie anyway. Do you at least know where Tukson is?" I breathed deeply. Dislike our mutual dislike- well, my general vexation towards the fact that she wants to maul me- she was still a customer, or at least a representative of a customer, and I'm nothing if not professional when the situation calls for it. I turned to the store terminal and typed a few things in.

"No idea, but that doesn't mean I can't get your order for you. Don't know why you insisted on my boss when I'm perfectly capable… ah hold up. Junior hasn't paid for it yet." Her face returned to a blank mask, responding to my own professional tone and shift, but I could feel how irritated she was anyway. At least it wasn't outright anger…

"And?" I winced. Her tone of voice had outright _chilled_; polite and professional are not always inclusive.

"And… that means I can't give you the shipment. Either you go back to Junior and get the lien for him, or you pay for it yourself. Actually…" I blinked, double-checked the number, then looked at her. "Scratch that. You'll have to get Junior's money."

She developed a mild scowl. "And what makes you say that?" In response, I spun the terminal's screen to face her, and Melanie blinked. Multiple times. "Why…" I shrugged, turning it back to look over the order.

"I think Junior wasn't paying attention when he sent you out. The shipment is both a number of rare books, and a large quantity of books besides. Enough that one person wouldn't be able to carry it. I suppose he assumed you'd bring Miltia along, as you two are twins and all." She let out a frustrated huff.

"I would have, but she was asleep. Some idiots tried hitting on us, and we didn't take kindly to them. It developed into a rather large brawl, so she's still rather tired, as Junior doesn't appreciate us seriously injuring customers, so holding back to the point of being nonlethal is especially tiring. I suppose then that there's nothing you can do?" She was still vexed, but it wasn't entirely at me now, so hey, whoo for that. I hummed, typing a bit more.

"Not a thing, Junior doesn't even have store credit. No one else will pick up the books though- they're reserved for the Den and will be held for the next week. You can head back now and get the money, as well as pick up a few men to help carry it." At her raised eyebrow, I elaborated. "Junior ordered enough books to warrant a full shipment from Atlas. As in, a full truck from the docks. It will take a number of people to carry these out. He's not so good at the people management thing is he?" Melanie's expression remained neutral as she shrugged, before turning on her heel.

"Fine then. I suppose I'll recruit a few of the workers; god knows they have nothing better to do during the day." I blinked, surprised at the lack of hostility in her tone, although we did shift to being professional anyway… Meh. It's a start, though she probably still wants to hurt me.

"Alright. Like I said, I'll be the one here until 6, then Tukson will be running it till closing time. I'll be swinging by the Den after my shift, so I'll see you later either way." At my words she paused at the door, before looking over her shoulder to glare at me.

"Don't assume we're friends. You're useful to Junior, apparently, so you're only off-limits for now. I still want to rip out your heart." I blinked. That was all in deadpan. That's some hardcore apathy she's trying to pull off, though I already know she's not really that uncaring. The fact that she wants to carry out her threat is enough to prove that. As I was considering, she left the store, the bell jingling. I sighed, going back to my books and scroll.

"Well, that could've been a lot worse…"

* * *

Just over an hour later, I felt a familiar signature approaching, but not the same one as before. Closing my eyes and concentrating, I recognized who this was, and that she had several people with her. At the tingling of the bell I opened my eyes but didn't look up from the books.

"Hello Mil. Melanie decided not to come along?" She approached the counter, two of the henchmen flanking her as the rest loitered outside. Seriously, you're going to scare away the other customers, guys!

"Opal. The delivery?" Ah, still short of words. I looked up and nodded, typing a few keys in the terminal to bring up the order before looking at her. Wordlessly, she produced an exorbitant amount of lien from… somewhere- where the hell does she keep stuff in that dress? On second thought, I don't want to know, though at least that explained the guards… and, I suppose, cheap labor too. Accepting the bills, I turned back to the office and headed into it, beckoning Miltia to follow. Normally, Tukson didn't like me going in, let alone customers… but the raw amount of books and the fact that the large amount of lien needed to be put in the safe immediately allowed me to ignore that custom for now. I gestured over at a pallet filled above my head with various books. Why Junior needed that many, I'll never know…

"There it is. You might want to get a few more men in here, as I doubt just two will be able to carry it." A slight nod was my reply, and as she turned back to the flunkies I began to count the lien. I doubted Junior would stiff Tukson, but it never hurt to make sure… I finished counting when Miltia returned, though the two henchmen had left. Actually, all of them had left, leaving just me and Miltia. At my tilted head, she spoke softly.

"Vehicle." I nodded, turning to put the money away in the safe. Yeah, just carrying that amount of books through the streets probably wouldn't be a good idea, come to think of it. Closing and locking it, I turned back to see Miltia gazing curiously at me. She spoke before I could do more than raise an eyebrow. "See you tonight?"

I blinked. Ah right, I did tell Melanie… "Yeah. Could use a bit of relaxation; just had a rather somber conversation with my roommates, so some time away would be good." I sat down on top of the safe, figuring it'd be best to not leave it until Miltia and the others had left or I had another customer. "You doing ok?" As her gaze, though mostly neutral, developed a hint of curiosity, I continued. "Melanie mentioned you had a rough night with some people who weren't very good at listening and exhausted yourself." She merely shrugged.

"Long, not hard." So, essentially, it was a long fight, but not really difficult. Fair enough: their weapons were sharp pieces of work, trying to avoid serious injury with them would be difficult. Come to think of it…

"How do you deal nonlethal subdue anyway? Those claws of yours aren't exactly well-suited to the task." At my words, she merely raised her arms and allowed her weapon to unfold. Similar to Yang's, they remained stored as a pair of bracers, although these ones covered her entire forearm.

"Hamstring." I winced. That sounded… very painful. At least it was something that could be healed easily in time though, so there's that much.

"Does it happen often?" At her slight tilt of the head, I continued, knowing she was mildly confused. God talking to the twins would suck so much if I couldn't cheat and just feel them. "Being hit on by guys who've had too much to drink?"

A mild shrug. "More Melanie." I interpreted that to mean that Melanie had to deal with it more often. Made sense: Miltia tended to fade into the background with her personality and dress- the red wasn't actually that uncommon, and it is a rather dark shade. Melanie, being brash and standing out in bright white, would attract more of the attention. But… that didn't answer my question. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"While that's interesting, you're avoiding the question, Mil." Another shrug.

"Occasionally. A few, weekly." So, it didn't happen often, just a couple of times a week at most. I would almost feel bad, but that people did it so much, and hit on Melanie even more, just states that they're stupid for not learning watching other people do it.

"Well, at least now I know better, if Melanie ever stops wanting to do me serious injury. That grudge is very irritating… It's not like she has anything to be ashamed of." A quick thought had me amend my statement. "Seriously, neither of you do, really. You're both extremely attractive." Miltia developed a light blush, although she glared.

"Pervert." Oi oi, that is not going to stand! I quickly got to my feet, pointing at her.

"Not a chance! First of all, I didn't mean to see what I did, that was entirely your sister's fault. Second of all, I was more concerned with running like hell when I realized what happened; if I was a pervert I'd have stayed there quite a bit longer." I considered my final point, then decided to press on. "Finally, I am a hot-blooded young man. You're hot. I'm going to notice shit like that- you think all of the guys who work with you don't?" The bell jingled to signal the return of the flunkies, and as the first few entered, I immediately shifted my finger to point at them. "You!" They froze, surprised. I only really interacted with Junior and Tony, but I was apparently somewhat known. Also, I caught them off guard. I gestured with my other hand at the twin in red, who was still glaring, though blushing a little bit more, probably at my final statement. "Proving a point here. Is she physically attractive to you?" The one I was pointing at raised an eyebrow.

"I'm homosexual, so no." I blinked, facepalmed, then flipped him off.

"Wise-ass… ok, who's attracted to women?" All the others slowly raised their hands, unsure of what I was doing or why they were listening. "Ok, I ask you then: is Miltia hot?" Some consideration. A unanimous group nod. "Thank you." I turned back to Miltia, who now had a full-on blush at all the attention. "My point has been proven. Oh what, you've never been complimented before?" A slow shake of her head.

"Rarely." I blinked. Then looked at the henchmen, who were shuffling their feet awkwardly and coughing while looking away, the homosexual one sniggering at his compatriots.

"Seriously? Not a one of you complimented her? What are you, pussies?" A few shrugs. I facepalmed. "Just because she can kick your ass doesn't mean she doesn't like being appreciated. Just… just get the books and get out of my damn store. You guys are idiots and I'm surprised Melanie hasn't torn you all a new asshole yet." The henchmen quickly filed in and worked in tandem to lift the pallet and quickly leave, almost leaving a smoke trail behind them anime-style. I sighed, turning back to Miltia, whose blush was fading now that all of the attention was gone. "Right then… now that that's dealt with, I'll see you at the Den tonight Mil." She slowly nodded, before her expression shifted to… apologetic?

"Sorry." I raised my eyebrow. "Pervert undeserved." Oh. Well, yeah, that was the point of my little tirade, but I didn't expect it to work. I sighed, walking back to the counter with her.

"It's fine, your first instinct makes sense. Sorry about putting you on the spot like that, but hey, at least now you know other people see you as pretty aside from drunk desperate men, right?" A slow nod came from her.

"Women too. Thanks, Opal." Not entirely surprised, I knew that people swung both ways here… and wasn't that hell on the population? Also, that's the most I've ever heard her talk to me. Yay, she's opening up! Plus… three to the friendship score I guess? Meh. I just chuckled as I approached my counter/workspace.

"Hey, someone would have done it eventually. It just happened to be me. Not that I mind helping my friends." A blink of shock from her as she registered that I counted her as a friend, but instead of pressing on that she gave a little wave and left the shop, bell jingling behind her. I blinked as she walked past the window, realizing she had sheathed her claws at some point. Silently. Damn, that was useful… I looked down at the weapons designs on my scroll. Damnit, now I need to figure out how to add that into some of my ideas…

* * *

So, Tukson returned near the end of my shift. I spent the remainder of my shift chewing him out for not mentioning Junior's order, as I really didn't like being confronted by someone who is rather hostile to me and is clearly combat capable. Got an apology out of him, which was nice. Sending a quick message to Qrow and the sisters, letting them know I was heading to the Bear's Den for tonight, I set out that way. I was completely going to give Junior hell next; he _knows_ that Melanie is un-fond of me, that asshole…

I blinked as I arrived, noticing the fairly large line of people. Huh, that's new… I wandered over to Tony, who was serving as a bouncer again, but with another helping him at the front of the line while he watched over the rest of it to keep an eye out for any violent patrons. He nodded at my approach, arms folded in front of him.

"Opal. Good to see you." I nodded back as I stopped next to him, appraising the line.

"What's up with that?" Tony sighed, uncrossing his arms as he too scanned the line, more so to watch for any unruly behavior.

"I'm sure one of the twins mentioned a fairly violent incident last night?" At my nod, he continued. "It happens occasionally, but it does leave some collateral damage. That, along with the fact that we're having a few police officers here tonight to oversee things, means we're double-checking all IDs and backgrounds." As he finished, the man at the front of the line was waved through by the bouncer, who had out a scroll with a fairly complex program. Tony spoke up before I could even move. "Not you though. Junior said to just wave you in, which is why I'm glad you decided to talk to me first." I blinked. That was nice.

"Huh. Why'd he set that up? Pretty sure I don't know him that well." Tony just shrugged at that.

"Hell if I know. He just told us to let you know he wanted to talk to you, and to allow you access in regardless of the time or circumstances, unless we're doing something sensitive. He'll tell you more when you're inside." I nodded, and with a quick arm clasp walked past Tony and gave a curt nod to the guards on shift today, who nodded back as I entered the club.

The noise was surprisingly subdued. Suppose they needed to be watchful tonight… I could see a few blue uniforms scattered amongst the crowd, so that was why. It's still loud, mind, but it's the difference between nine and ten on a scale, and anyone used to the normal noise level would find it far easier to hear in here. A quick glance at the bar allowed me to see Junior tending it. I wandered over to him as a few patrons got up, obviously a group, and left to go dance. I sat down at the seat they vacated and watched as Junior turned to greet a customer, only to pause at the sight of me. I gave a mock wave.

"Hey Junior. I was told you wanted to speak to me." Junior gestured to the other bartender, whose name I _still_ didn't know, to take over as he walked around. Another gesture had me standing and following him over to a room which he opened up and allowed me to walk inside. As the door closed, I noticed the immediate lack of noise. Huh, very soundproofed… It was well-decorated, with shades of red for the carpeting and furniture and white on the walls. Sitting on one of the three large couches were the twins, both having blank expressions despite the sight of me generally sending Melanie scowling. Hmm… a quick focus on my other senses found that Mil was a touch happy to see me while Melanie, surprise surprise, was rather vexed, though she was keeping it suppressed. Alright, guess this was business of some sort. Junior sat down on the couch next to them, leading me to sit down at the couch across from them, a glass coffee table between us with a few glasses on it. I sent a look at the big burly man, who was straightening his tie.

"What's up Junior? It's kind of odd that you brought me of all people back here: I know you like me and all, but Melanie still wants me hospitalized, and you don't know me that well." Junior nodded at my assessment.

"True, but at the same time, it seems that aside from these roommates you mention, no one knows you that well." I blinked. Wait, why- "I was asked by someone to do a check on you. Nothing extensive, just a basic background-where you're from, past schooling, the simple things." Who would… Tukson? No, he doesn't care, and a background check on him would reveal worse… Fuck, Neo. She probably got curious about me, and since I had brought up Junior first… yeah this could be bad. "So, I do a little digging. I find _absolutely nothing_, not even a trail, from anything before a week and a half ago. It's like you didn't exist until recently, and no one has a thing on you." Crap, crap crap crap. This could be very very ba- "I'd like to have you run a job for me." My thoughts abruptly halted. If one listened very closely, one could hear the train-wreck of my mental processes.

"Uh…. What?" That… did not go where I expected. Junior sighed, leaning forward a bit.

"You're an unknown, anywhere. Which means, on the flip side, you have no criminal record, which has the potential of being very useful. I need some things sent to Vacuo." At my look, he raised his hands up defensively. "Nothing illegal. I was requested to bring some books to there that are somewhat frowned upon by the local government. Any of my men would have their belongings double-checked, and a day-trip by any of them aside from the twins would be highly suspicious." I tilted my head at that.

"While I understand all of your things being carefully scrutinized, why wouldn't the twins be suspected for a day-trip?" Junior just grinned.

"Vacuo has very good spas, and I let them head out there once a month to relax and cool off a little. Recent events here have warranted a second trip this month, coincidentally, so you're not going alone." I shook my head.

"Alright, fine, you want me to smuggle some books apparently because you don't feel like bribing some officials to look the other way when your people try it. I get that. Why me? I don't work for you, and I really have no incentive to spend one of my free days doing this." Junior nodded understandingly at that.

"True. I had planned on coordinating with Tukson to have you personally escort some books, more than just the specific ones ordered, to where my client will pick them up. All perfectly legal, I just want to avoid the government officials playing politics, and you happen to be a grand way to do that. You will of course be paid, aside from paid hours from Tukson as he'll be paid as well." I nodded, mentally noting that paying Tukson and me to do this is apparently still cheaper than bribing Vacuo officials.

"Money's nice, but you're skipping over the fact that while Mil and I get along okay, Melanie is rather unfond of me. Why would I willingly travel with her?" Spending a lot of time around hot twins? Only works if both of them are friendly with me.

"Aside from the money? Because Melanie can act professionally when she needs to, and so can you." I let loose a tired sigh.

"I really see no concrete reason to not go along with this… fine, if you arrange everything with Tukson and the airship ticket and everything, I'll help out. Suppose it'll be something different than working at the bookstore." At Junior's appreciative look, I raised my hand. "Also guarantee that the twins will protect me. I don't know Vacuo too well, and I'd rather not be sent back in a cast or something because some dumb thug picked a fight with the tourist." Junior cast a look at the aforementioned sisters, who both nodded, though Melanie took a second to do so.

"Alright, then we'll set things up for this. Saturday work alright for you?" I nodded; I'd have a day off directly after to recover regardless of what happened. "Alright, then just swing by here Saturday at 8 am, you'll meet up with the twins before heading to Tukson's to grab the other books for the shipment there. I'll have the tickets ready when you get here." Junior stood and held out his hand, and I stood as well and shook it.

_So now I'm heading to Vacuo… joy. At least I'll have protection, considering the twins' paycheck is dependent on my safety. Just have to watch my step… Goddamnit Neo, this is your fault._

**AN: Apologies on the lateness folks, was spending Spring Break on vacation. From… everything, essentially. But here it is, a bit late but hey. Got things done I wanted to, no conversation with Tukson, that'll be next chapter. Some thoughts for those who care:**

**-Man vs. Monster: Yeah, this is a subject I really wasn't sure about, but I felt it necessary, considering how much the cast ends up fighting other people. I kind of wondered how well they were coping with such a thing, considering all of their training is designed to killing Grimm. So… this. Lots of mention to our history and stuff, because it's a good basis for the point. Carefully avoiding the mentioning of killing other humans, because I really don't see Ruby taking that too well. Yang, eventually, would accept it, as she's actually rather mature, but Ruby… not so much. Qrow has killed, obviously, and is still terrifying.**

**-Melanie at the bookstore: Eh. I have essentially promoted the twins from "bodyguard" to "personal enforcers", which leads to more things they do for him aside from just protecting him. So they get sent to do other things, such as picking up special orders. Yes, Melanie wants me put in the hospital for the past incident, but she is a professional. And so am I, despite my reciprocation of her hostility, so we can both move past that if necessary. Doesn't mean we won't snipe at each other when possible.**

**-Miltia: Melanie obviously wasn't going to come back, so our **_**other**_** favorite twin takes over the job along with a bunch of mooks. 'Cause mooks. Anyway, Miltia speaks very little around people she doesn't know too well (IE anyone that isn't Junior or Melanie, currently), and is more passive than her twin. Doesn't stop her from making her points known when she wants to. The idea of her being looked over generally for Melanie comes from the "Jaune at Edelweiss" stories, written by AtroxForensis over at AO3. Credit to him, they're a decent set of stories. Dunno if he came up with them first, but that's where I read the idea, so crediting him. So she is surprised that someone would compliment her so freely, and inspire others to do so. Yay for happy moments!**

**-The Bear's Den: So, yes, Orion gets waved through because Junior, Miltia, and Tony like him and know him. Whoo, kind of VIP status. Yes, Neo is the one who almost caused Orion to be sold out, because she's a curious little creature. However, Junior instead decided to make use of that information instead of selling him out, sending him on a job working with Tukson. Orion isn't entirely reluctant to do so, because he needs to know more of the world than just Vale. Plus, he has guaranteed safety in the form of the twins, who are more than a match for anyone Orion may have to deal with in Vacuo.**

**On that note… Yeah my previous list of characters who won't pop up until far later? Yeah that's changing due to Orion's travel arrangements to elsewhere in Remnant, so we'll be seeing a certain monkey thief and perhaps his partner as well? It depends.**

**Once again many thanks to Veil Hasoc for editing! Muchly appreciated! The long wait for this one is entirely my fault, I didn't get it out to Veil until a day or two ago for preview.**

**So read! Review! Make sure you know exactly what is available to others to figure out who you are!**


	15. Chapter 15

**RRC: Hello again my dear readers! Hope you enjoyed last update; your reviews tell me that at least a few did! Let's see what you folks think…**

** edus: You and all my other fans! Though the tales of Vauco will be split into two chapters: this one and the next. So hope you enjoy.**

** Odd Guest: *shrug* Something us mortals enjoy is breathing. Self-preservation is a **_**lot**_** of what drives Orion since his arrival.**

** Raidentensho: I think interacting with Sun could be interesting, considering Orion's own blatant disregard for associating with criminals. And it's weapons plural, you are correct.**

**On with the story, then, folks!**

**Would Rather Have and Not Need….**

"So Vacuo, huh?" Tukson had a neutral expression on his face looking down at me from the counter of his store. The rest of last evening had been spent trying a few drinks recommended by Junior and observing other people through my aura sense, to get more practice with it. Keeping track of Junior and the twins wasn't too hard, despite the crowd of people; keeping track of any specific person otherwise was a waste of time. It seems that unless they have a decent amount of aura, or I'm familiar with them, then I won't be able to keep track of a specific signature. I can tell someone's there, but that's really it. The next day led me back to work and warning Tukson about Junior's plans, as I figured Junior hadn't brought it up with him yet.

"Not like I want to go. At least this way, Junior is paying me extra and I'll have some protection in case I get a stroke of bad luck or something." I shrug, not looking up from my scroll as I was currently searching through the various functions normally used by students at the various academies. Aura tracking would be a very useful starter, but what else… If I'm stuck going to another capital city, I'm taking precautions. Linking an Aura tracker to the twins? Maybe… Tukson, unknowing of my inner thoughts, nodded in my peripheral vision.

"Fair enough. I'll meet with him later today, probably when he actually sends the message. I appreciate the heads up. You got the store under control for today?" A thumbs up from me was my only reply, causing him to turn on his heel and leave the store, bell jingling behind him. All on my lonesome once again… It's par for the course, though, so hey. I pause in my typing, before bringing up my files on my weapon ideas. That's a work in progress… nearly done, but not finalized… way too flashy for where I'm going… well, I have one finalized idea, and it's simple enough, so I can probably get it done between now and Saturday. I sent a quick message off to Qrow asking him to swing by if he gets a chance, then returned to looking for helpful aps.

* * *

The front door opened an hour later while I was busy helping an earlier customer, and surprisingly in stepped Qrow. He gave me a brief nod before wandering over to examine various works we had set up on Aura theory. I returned my attention to the current customer, a young faunus who I knew worked at a nearby coffee shop who happened to enjoy trashy romance novels. People like him are why we kept them stocked… After helping him sort through which ones he wanted and getting paid, I waved to him as he left, books in a bag as the door closed behind him. As it did, Qrow turned away from browsing the aura theory books to lean on the counter.

"You needed something?" I blinked, hesitating for a moment.

"Don't you have a class to teach?" He shook his head.

"Substitute is taking over for today, I needed to pick up a few reference materials for classes next week." As the tall man nodded at me, I realized that was both true and an excuse to come meet with me. Well that works, I'll just have to keep in mind that we'll need to deal with that. I quickly filled him on last night's events with Junior and my pending trip to Vacuo. He listened silently, before raising an eyebrow.

"Do you trust Junior to keep what he's found a secret?" I leaned back in my chair, a recent addition from Tukson since I had no need to open the office on a normal day and I spent most of my time behind the counter anyway.

"So long as I remain useful to him, even if he is paying me, probably. Not much good to lose a valuable resource like me, and he's a bit fond of me. Not so much blackmail right now as it is extra incentive to work with him. On that note, the reason for my asking for your visit." Qrow nodded. "I've got one of my ideas finalized. While I'm sure the Malachites will act professionally, I'd like a little extra insurance just in case, knowing my luck I'll end up stepping into a turf war or something while I'm there." While I was talking, I brought up the design in question on my scroll before holding it out to him. Taking it, he appraised it with a careful eye before handing it back.

"At least it's one of your simpler ideas. We should be able to get this built after your shifts today and tomorrow, though you'll be losing a bit of sleep. Anything else?" I was going to say no, but then paused. Qrow's a veteran Hunter, and a teacher besides. Maybe…

"Actually, there might be. Are there any useful tools on my Scroll I can set up? I know I can track my Aura, and the Aura of my teammates, but I don't know beyond that…" Qrow blinked, a bit surprised, before contemplating.

"Aside from those and a map function, there's also a rarely used function that combines the three others to mark where your teammates are on your map." At my look, he explained further. "Not so much rarely used, but not given to students until their second years at higher academics such as Beacon. We prefer to make sure that Huntsmen in training know how to communicate their locations to one another without relying on possibly breakable technology to do it for them. After doing so for a year, however, most don't bother using it when they do learn of it." Qrow considered for a moment, before extending his hand out. Getting the idea, I passed him my scroll, allowing him to rapidly move through it. "Normally, you would need to get a school-issued scroll for these functions, or get them set up by a company or illegally. I know for a fact that Junior knows a few people who can. In this case, as all of those options are less than preferable, I can unlock them myself, claiming you as an apprentice of mine." At my owl-eyed look, he shrugged casually, fingers still flying rapidly. "It's true to a certain extent. I've certainly taught you quite a bit about Aura and our world."

I blinked, considering that, then shrugged myself. "Fair enough, there are worse things to be known as. I'd rather that little title not get thrown around, though. No offense, but that may imply that I am training to be a Huntsmen, something I'd rather avoid, you understand." Qrow gave me an accepting nod as he passed me back my scroll, allowing me to flip through it rapidly to find the functions I wanted and calibrate it immediately to my Aura, before pausing. "Is there a way to set it to a numerical indicator instead of just a bar?" He shook his head.

"Different people have different levels of Aura. For example, you actually do have more Aura at your disposal currently than Ruby or Yang, but they are far more practiced with it, and their respective Semblances allow them to make far greater use of certain aspects. On the other hand, any Huntsmen who has fully earned the title will for a guarantee have more Aura then you, though even that is a varying amount. Attempting to quantify all the various amounts would be pointless, especially when you consider that your Aura grows more powerful as you use it. There should be a setting to set it to a percentage, however." That made sense. I sincerely doubted that Cardin Winchester, who was only slightly more competent then the rest of his team, had anywhere near the amount that Jaune had right at the start. Jaune just couldn't really fight worth a damn, and Cardin did hit fairly hard. Toggling the setting to show the percentage, I collapsed and stowed it.

"Don't think there's anything else, unless you can think of something?" A shake of his head was my answer, so I turned to the terminal and began calling up various books. "Ok then, let's see what we have in stock that you can provide to your classes…"

* * *

So that was a surprise. What next, Ruby would come visit me at my work? I wouldn't put it past her if she got bored enough, actually… On the plus side, I was able to set things up with Qrow so he could pick me up after my shift and take me directly to Signal to borrow their forges. Apparently, as Qrow's 'apprentice' I was allowed use of them, as he served as faculty there, and a number of folks there wouldn't have minded anyway due to the idea session I had with him and the sisters that we in turn provided to the school. After finding a suitable book, we arranged for a school transport to come pick up copies of it over the weekend, something I made a note of on the terminal for Tukson. I would still tell him tomorrow, but little reminders never hurt. Now I was studying a current map of Vacuo, to get a better understanding of the area, as well as referencing a few 'field guides', as they were termed.

Vacuo is split into two main areas: Inner Vacuo, which is similar to Vale only a little more posh. All nice, low crime, the good things. Then you have Outer Vacuo, which is essentially the slums. Crime is a lot more rampant as police rarely go out past Inner Vacuo's 'area', as it were, and they worry far more about Grimm attacks then those closer to the city center. It's a bad situation, but apparently it works, as it's still in place. I had fair odds that a certain monkey is from Outer Vacuo, while his partner has good odds on being from Inner Vacuo. Didn't stop them from being best friends though... I sense clichés somewhere in that story, but I'll leave it alone. Turning the page, I hummed thoughtfully before feeling a vaguely familiar presence approaching. Odd, most people don't register right off… Focusing inwards, I reached out and tried to place the owner of the presence as the bell rang-

My eyes opened and my face shifted into a deadpan. "You. You are the entire reason I am going to Vacuo. I never wanted to go to Vacuo, and now I'm going. I hope you're happy."

A large smile was my reply. *Oh come on, 'Opal', it's not all bad. You get a paid trip to explore a capital city!* Neo, you little…

"Oh, sure, in the meantime I'm stuck in the company of a woman who wants to put me in the hospital, her twin sister who refuses to talk, and a bunch of books that may get me arrested or beaten by the local police force! What part of that is in anyway relaxing? I'm going to be stressed out of my goddamned mind, woman!" Yes, I was a touch irritable with her. Because Neo asked Junior to look into me, this entire situation is at hand. And I can tell by that damn mischievous glint in her eye that it wasn't an accident, either…

Her smile shifted into a rather feral smirk. *Yes, well, I didn't feel like going to Vacuo alone myself, so we're even.* Wait, alone herself… I blinked, then gaped.

"How extensive are those illusions of yours, exactly?" I know she can hide herself, and help communicate a little bit, but this… She pouted at me. *Now now, that would be telling. Not like it matters to you though; from what I gather, my illusions won't do a thing to you, will they?* And score two points to the highly intelligent criminal. She's correct in a way; part of how easily I can communicate with her is my sensing ability making out what she's doing with her aura when she expresses it. That little facet would allow me to be a bit suspicious if I feel her actively doing something, and is why I still have rational thought near her despite my genuine terror of the thought of her growing bored and deciding to attack me. I closed my mouth, shaking my head.

"Be that as it may… You're heading to Vacuo? What for?" I sincerely doubted she would tell me, and her pout shifting into a knowing little smirk was a pretty good answer…

*Now that would be telling, wouldn't it? Suffice to say it more than likely doesn't concern your efforts. We'll be leaving on the same flight though, and in the same cabin, as I had Junior arrange my flight, so you'll be flying with three attractive women. Isn't that what most guys and girls dream of?* I deadpan at her.

"You're a loli fetish, midget." She pouted again. "Melanie still wants to beat me senseless, and while Miltia is warming up to me, I sincerely doubt she's warmed up to you." I tilted my head as the last part of her statement registered. "Bisexual?" She shrugged, her face turning neutral.

*I like to think I'm an open-minded individual. Not everybody agrees with that assessment, but most of my partners know the risks.* That her eyes blinked to white-brown is a bit worrying… And I really really don't want to know. I tilted my head, squinting at her.

"That people are willing despite your appearance is kind of creepy." More pouting from her, though it's playful, so eh. "Any chance of you being willing to help keep me alive while we're they're? I have really odd karma." She blinked, her eye colors shifting to pink-brown now, considering.

*I… suppose?* As she thought about it some more, she blinked again, turning both of her eyes pink. *You seem to be rather interesting, and seem to lead a… different life than most people. Following you around might be interesting, and I can get away with it easier in Vacuo due to its nature.* That was fair enough; Neo looked a touch suspicious and her muteness was off-putting to most people; however, she's not actually listed as a criminal here, though I have no doubt that she's committed her fair share of crimes. Outer Vacuo would be pretty comforting as an environment for her. I relax a little bit, knowing that most of the danger in the conversation had passed.

"I'm reassured. Anyway, do you mind buying a book, since you're here and all?" Another blink, before she shrugged, wandering over to the sci-fi, somehow _humming with her semblance without making any actual noise_ as she browsed. I resisted the urge to facepalm.

_That's some hardcore silence right there…_

* * *

After that… unusual, conversation, my shift was relatively boring, a steady stream of customers looking for comics or trashy romance novels. Hardly interesting, but whatever pays the bills, and _wow I need my head checked._ Shaking that thought off, I waved to Tukson through the door as it closed behind me, getting a nod in return as I heard, and felt, Qrow pull up next to the shop. Opening the passenger door, I clambered in, shutting it behind me as Qrow pulled away and started heading to Signal. After some… convincing, Tukson agreed to let me take Friday off so I could prepare for the trip as best as I can, which will be useful. Qrow spoke up, never taking his eyes from the road.

"I'll be helping you and guiding you as much as I can, but all of the physical work will be up to you, you understand." I gave a low hum of acknowledgement. "Do not forget to guide your Aura into the metal while you're working with it, both to strengthen the weapon and to memorize the procedure for maintenance, as well as form a bond with it." His tone shifted a little. "Are you sure you want to make this one now? Your supposed 'main' weapon is still incomplete in design…" I snorted at that.

"Yeah, and it'll do jack all against other humans, which will be the main threat where I'm going, you know that." A nod as he knew I was looking at him while speaking. "Any of the others would be rather limited. This will be a good multi-purpose tool in case things get ugly out there, which knowing my luck…" I trailed off, allowing Qrow to finish the sentence.

"Is more than probable, true. Well, at least you designed this one with the idea of fighting other humans in mind, though I have no doubt if you really need to it can be used against some of the lesser Grimm. On that note however-" His tone shifted again, to a grimmer one. "Looking back over our notes, it seems that the majority of what you crafted were for use against humans rather than the creatures of the Grimm. Any particular reason for that?" I shrugged, more out of habit than anything as he would only barely be able to see it.

"As I said, I don't plan on being a Huntsman. That said, my karma is bipolar, which means _something_ will happen regardless of where I am. That, combined with my own knowledge of human nature when left unchecked… I'd rather be prepared for the enemy I have a higher probability of fighting. In time, I will also be prepared for the Grimm, but that won't be for a while yet. Rest assured, these tools of mine will be for purposes of keeping myself alive, not killing others." What was left unsaid between us was that sometimes there wasn't much of a line between the two purposes. The rest of the car ride passed in silence as we headed to craft the first of many tools in my future arsenal, if all goes to plan.

* * *

"You're late." Hello to you to Melanie. I merely scowled at her before walking past, feeling her and her sister fall into line behind me as I entered The Bear's Den, dressed in my usual attire with the unique addition of a pair of grey metal bands, one on each arm, covering a good half of each forearm.

"I had a few last minute things to attend to, plus I had to avoid getting pummeled by one of my roommates for not mentioning ahead of time that I was going on this trip." Melanie gave a sadistic chuckle at the thought of me being attacked by someone. Bitch. Their heels clacked against the ground, Melanie's being slightly louder than her sister's, as we approached the VIP room from before. Entering, we found Junior sitting at the couch in the middle and Neo sitting on one side. I chose to sit next to Neo, while the twins sat opposite us, Neo giving me a perky little smile as I plopped down next to her. I gave a simple nod to Junior in greeting, who returned it before clearing his throat.

"Alright then, we have here" here he flourished a few tickets from inside his jacket, passing them over to me "tickets for the four of you to reach Vacuo. You'll be landing in Inner Vacuo, which means you'll be having a bit of a walk as my contact is in Outer Vacuo. Really simple job you three, just bring the books to the contact, get a written confirmation, and avoid notice from any authority type figures. That means don't start fights or commit any crimes while you still have those books in your possession, clear?" A warning glare was given to me and the twins, but we were unfazed. The twins, I assumed, didn't notice because they were veteran employees of the big man, and in my case Qrow had a far more terrifying effect on me, Junior's glare was nothing compared to his. I just snorted.

"Great, I'm a glorified delivery boy. Neo I'm assuming is doing something for you or helping you in some way, hence why we're all traveling in the same cabin?" A scowl from the info broker was my only answer, while Neo pouted at me poking for information. I shook my head. "Whatever, so long as Neo doesn't start something while she's with us, we'll be golden. What time do we have to reach the airport to get back?" Here Junior looked a touch guilty.

"Ah, yes, well…" At my deadpan, he coughed. "The only tickets I could get easily for four people were ones that would bring you back Sunday afternoon." I continued to deadpan at him, so he simply waved me off. "Relax, I'll be paying for your 'overtime', as it were, and I made hotel arrangements for the three of you. On your own there Neo." A cheery little shrug was all he got, though I frowned as I thought.

"Define hotel arrangements, Junior." He blinked at me, a touch confused. "Because if you have me and Melanie sleeping in the same room, that could be very bad. And I will take it out on you." He just shrugged.

"Sorry kiddo, no point in spending money needlessly. The three of are sharing a room, two beds." At this point the twins glared at him as well, though he steadfastly ignored them. "They won't harm you or do anything while you sleep, they are expected to keep you from harm until you return to Vale, that includes harm from them." Well, at least I'm not the only one made uneasy by the arrangement. I rubbed my face tiredly.

"Fine, whatever, I can sleep in what I'm wearing. The books will be in a suitcase at work, right?" Another nod had me sigh before standing, gesturing for Neo to do the same. "Right, then, unless there's anything else?" He shook his head.

"No, but the twins will be staying here for a moment. They'll meet you at the docks, I need to talk to them." I shrugged, perfectly fine with staying away from Melanie, contractual obligations or not.

"They're your employees. Come on Neo, keep me company while I walk since we're going the same direction." A happy little smile sprouted on her face before she began to gesture animatedly at me, asking about my new additions as we left the room.

* * *

The door shut behind the odd pair, allowing Junior to sigh. While Opal was mysterious to a certain extent, and a touch odd for uncaringly associating with who he does, he was a nice guy, and the big man felt no reason to involve him in what he needed the girls to be doing, or mentioning at all what Neo would be up to. Both because it didn't concern him at all, and because Neo terrified the hell out of Junior, as he had far more knowledge of what she did on a regular basis than most. He took out his scroll, turning to the twins.

"While I do expect you to try and keep him out of trouble, that's not why you're going to Vacuo." A snort from the more vocal twin signified how obvious that was to them. Junior merely shrugged. "Need some excuse for why you're gone. People in other cities are starting to skimp out on payments for information, and it so happens that the biggest offender is in Vacuo. He and his gang owe me a lot of money; get me my payment, and make an example out of them. Keep Opal out of it if possible, though; Neo has agreed to keep him distracted if necessary while you go out to take care of things, and she'll be staying in Vacuo for an indeterminate amount of time." At that their shoulders relaxed. The twins were never really fond of the odd girl, Junior recalled. Miltia spoke up this time.

"Why is she going with us? And why are you even having her help?" While Miltia is a rather quite individual, she speaks far more openly around people she's close to. Currently, that mainly consisted of Junior, her sister, and surprisingly Kuma, though she did have a soft spot for music. Junior sighed at that.

"Because I'm the easiest way for her to arrange transport, and she has an interest in Opal as well, so she insisted. At least she's doing it for free, and has promised to try not to antagonize you two too much." The twins scowled, unhappy. Melanie spoke this time, crossing her white-covered legs.

"Hmph. That little brat... it's hard to believe she's older than us. We still owe her for that one night." Junior merely chuckled, earning him a pair of glares. Which he completely ignored, being immune to his enforcers' wrath.

"That's what you get for not watching how much you were drinking, you two. You knew she was looking for a way to bang the two of you, and you admittedly get rather affectionate when drunk. At least she didn't record it, like she does to most, and she doesn't poke fun at you two." The girls shuddered at the thought of her doing that. Neo constantly flirted with the two just to mess with them, but what got to them the most was that she knew that their relationship extended to more than just being sisters. Junior didn't care; what his employees got up to in their free time was up to them, but he at least helped them keep it hidden from anyone outside of the crew, knowing that while homosexuality wasn't looked down upon, incest was an entirely different matter. The rest of the crew, if any cared, kept their thoughts to themselves, leaving only Neo as unknown. Junior didn't begrudge them either; he knew their pasts better than anyone else, and they had to find comfort in something. Shaking himself from those solemn thoughts, he stood, causing the twins to do the same.

"Right, that's enough of that. Check your scrolls when you have a moment away from the kid, and get the job done, both jobs. Good luck, and try to not get arrested please. Bail money in Vacuo is like gambling; never know how much it's going to cost you." With that parting shot, the three left the room, Junior to go about stocking the bar, the twins to go to the airdocks.

* * *

*Hmm, do you really think that those will be necessary? They seem a bit like overkill, honestly.* Neo's question popped in my head as we walked, myself hefting a rather large backpack as we neared the airport. I snorted at that.

"Knowing my luck, it won't be enough. I'm not exactly a trained fighter you know." Neo merely shrugged at that.

*True, but you have the twins, and me, to help. You really shouldn't need anything beyond us.* I shook my head at her. "Be that as it may, I like to be prepared just in case something does happen. While I have little doubt in your combat abilities, knowing what Melanie and Miltia do for a living and what I can sense from you, I don't trust that some random deity will cause us to be separated anyway, just to fuck with me." A non-vocalized giggle from her was communicated to me, making me shudder. "Seriously, how the hell do you that? Understanding words is one thing, but humming and giggling aren't words!" She giggled again, probably just to spite me.

*Secret~* Little brat. She just smirked, easily guessing what was running through my mind. Finally, though, we reached the airdock, where the twins were standing waiting. Not exactly patiently on Melanie's part, as she was tapping her foot rather rapidly, arms crossed as she stood straight, and though her face was completely blank, I could tell she was irritated. Miltia was leaning against a wall behind her, arms crossed, her own face blank, but she at least was rather emotionless. Once again, so thankful to my senses that allow me to cheat and figure out what they're feeling so I can have an actual conversation with them without being tripped up by their body language.

"You're so slow. We were held up by Junior and we still got here before you." I just shrugged, backpack shifting slightly as I did so.

"Tukson wanted to chat for a bit, and I'm carrying this thing. Relax will ya? We still have some time to get on the flight." She 'hmphed', spinning on her heel and striding imperiously into the building, heels clacking. Miltia straightened from the wall and followed her inside, just a step behind her more aggressive sister. I shook my head at the two.

"This flight is going to be _so_ much _fun_…" My sarcastic tone earned another giggle from the mischievous midget next to me, earning her a deadpan as we entered the building ourselves.

* * *

"Well, one thing to your boss; he certainly doesn't skimp out on accommodations." This comment was obviously from me, and was spurred on my entry into the cabin procured for the four us. Decorated in rich reds with various couches, it almost looked exactly like the VIP room in his club, though with a plastic table instead of glass. Miltia remained silent at my remark, while Melanie chose to spoke up, a touch of hostility in her tone.

"Well, it's not like he'll skimp out on his top two employees or an old associate. Be grateful he decided to include you as well instead of getting you a far lesser place to stay for the flight." Arrogant much? Not even bothering to respond yet, I just tossed the backpack at a couch, knowing that nothing in it was fragile, before plopping down next to it. The twins once again sat together, on my right side as I had claimed the middle couch, while Neo daintily sat across from them, umbrella twirling over her shoulder.

"Yes yes, you're so generous. What the hell do you two do anyway? You act more like bouncers when I see you than anything else, though I know it's more than that." Miltia spoke up before her twin could give a biting retort.

"Enforcers." I just blinked at her, as while a good job title, her statement wasn't exactly descriptive. Melanie _kindly_ took it upon herself to explain.

"What Miltia means is that we do pretty much anything Junior might need, though most often it is serving as his bodyguards or keeping the trouble at the club to a minimum. We're also sent on errands or message delivery, or to shake down customers who owe us too much. Finally, we're occasionally hired to serve as bodyguards for wealthy clients, though that is rather rare as Junior dislikes hiring out his most valued workers." I tilted my head, getting her to roll her eyes. "Neo would've told you anyway, judging by the rapid typing on her scroll" -indeed, Neo was typing something on her scroll, fingers flying across the screen- "and it's not like anyone else couldn't have told you either. Why people talk to you so willingly I'll never understand, as you're an asshole."

I snorted. "Right, bitch. For your information I'm a rather likable individual, you just had a bad first impression." A dry look was my only my response. "Neo likes me." A happy little wave just caused even more of a deadpan look from Melanie, somehow. "Junior likes me." A casual wave of her hand. I restrained myself from sighing. "You're the only one holding a grudge, Miltia likes me." That got an actual response, as Melanie's bored eyes turned to her sister, who looked away with a neutral face. In actuality, that was Melanie being incredulous, and Miltia being a touch ashamed at being caught out. Whoops… Melanie hmphed, folding her arms across her chest, turning back to me.

"Or you're just a very good liar." Oi. "Regardless, as I am to ensure your protection, you do not have to worry about me attacking you in your sleep or some cliché action such as that." As I had observed before: she's not at all fond of me, but she can be professional when she needs to be. I shrug.

"Fair enough, It's nice to know I have professionals watching my back." A curious little look from Neo had me just deadpan at her. "Neo, you're not being paid to keep me alive, you're just doing it out of some sick sort of interest in me." Neo shrugged. *Doesn't mean I'll leave you hung out to dry.* I rolled my eyes. "I'm not worried about that, I'm just pointing out the different motivations of our dysfunctional little group here." Neo just silently giggled at that, which had the twins leaning away from her and me sighing. *Dysfunctional is a word for it. Dysfunctional is also a word for the sisters…* I raised an eyebrow at her, but she shook her head. *Not my story to tell, as… entertaining as your reactions promise to be.* At that point Melanie spoke again.

"How are you even holding a conversation with her? She's just making gestures." Oh, right. While to me I 'hear' words to go along with the use of her semblance and body language, anyone else gets a far more vague understanding of what she intends to communicate. I raise an eyebrow at Neo again, getting her to smile cheerily at me. *Even the most astute of observers of my body language will not get as much from me as you do.* I sigh.

"I'm far more capable of interpreting body language than you might think. You do have a point though. Neo" Neo tilted her head. "Please refrain from communicating without your scroll; it's impolite to talk in a different language around people, or in this case coworkers." That earned me a roll of her eyes, though that was all as she ceased to use her semblance to facilitate understanding, going back to typing something on her scroll. Probably a little message for the twins to read, as she has no need to communicate to me via scroll. I turned my attention back to the Malachites. "So, are we walking to the delivery point once we land, or taking a vehicle?" Miltia chose to speak this time instead of letting her sister do so.

"Walking's cheaper." So I took that to meant that since Junior is trying to cut corners, we'd be walking. Alright then, wouldn't kill me to heft the bag around. At that point it fell into silence, Neo still typing on her scroll while the twins browsed something on theirs, and I brought up more information on Vacuo on mine before pausing.

"Oh right, you three." At my words all three shifted their eyes to me, though nothing else. Well, at least I had their attention. "Mind if I register you three as 'teammates' on my scroll? In case something happens and we need to keep track of each other's aura in combat." A scoff from Melanie.

"Like that'll be necessary; Miltia and I can keep track of each other's aura just fine without a scroll." I shook my head at her.

"While that's true, I can't." That's a blatant lie: I can, to a certain rough degree, but the scroll is still more accurate. "As well, Neo can't either, and you can't keep track of us, now can you?" She scowled darkly at me, but then blinked when she heard two chiming noises as Miltia and Neo agreed to my suggestion with action, connecting their scrolls to mine. She gawked at them, before sighing, and a third chime rung out as all four of us were connected, or at least to mine. Lack off any subsequent chimes told me that as Melanie said, the twins were perfectly capable of measuring each other's aura in combat. It also told me that Neo didn't connect to the twins, nor did the twins even try as silence returned; bad history perhaps? Not my place to pry though. I sighed, immediately bringing up what Qrow unlocked for me to render them as 'teammates', bringing up measurements of their Aura and, unknown to them apparently as Neo didn't say a word against connecting, a locator for the gps function. I doubt that part will be necessary unless we get separated and I need to run to them, but for now it'll be fine.

_I better disconnect from Neo before we leave Vacuo though; no need to irritate her needlessly…_

**AN: And End! For now, the next chapter should come far quicker than this one as I did leave it kinda open-ended. Apologies for that, my fans! But if I started into the Vacuo section, there'd be no way for me to stop, and this chapter would become far too long compared to the rest. Things to note for you:**

**Scroll aura functions: It can obviously register your Aura, that's canon. The teammates Aura tracker, no idea, but I figured it'd make sense. Map function also makes sense, or at least locators within a city. Out in the wild it'll simply register how close the nearest settlement is. The combination of the three to locate teammates I sincerely doubt actually exists, as there have been a few times where such a thing would've been extraordinarily useful canonically. I've added that in, as it's something I believe should exist in the RWBY-verse, as much as they stress teamwork and cooperation to overcome hardship. Following that…**

**Aura levels: Yeah, some of you may get ticked off at me blatantly saying I have more Aura than Yang. Deal with it; and as I pointed out, while I have more, I use it far more wastefully than experienced combatants (read: everyone but Jaune.) In time, as I get more practice, I'll be able to use it better, but until then, that copious amount will be my only saving grace. On that note, as I said, in this world, the more you use Aura, the more you have. I view it like exercising your soul: the more effort you put into it, the more you'll have at your disposal. Actual Huntsmen will have large amounts of it, and students will have generally less at their disposal at first. As time passes, they'll have more and more until they have roughly the same as any other qualified Huntsmen.**

**Neo: More interaction with the psycho midget for your amusement, folks! Yes, she's coming with me to Vacuo, and yes, she is a sadistic bisexual person. I can easily see her having multiple bedfellows, non-romantic, across genders. Her age is roughly 23 for the purposes of this story, deal with it, as we have no canonical age. Her illusions are far more than just visual here: they can also do sound and touch, and if woven very carefully, there's a lot you can do with an illusion, such as subtly manipulate someone. Neo is going to be a bit more of a power player in this fic than canon, just because there's so much I can do with her. Her interest in Orion… well how that ends we shall see, although he is indeed worried a little bit by it.**

**Weapons crafting: Yes I skipped it, as I personally have no knowledge on any part of it, and rather than BS it I'm just going to skip it. If you're really that curious about possible ways one could craft the weaponry of RWBY, one again, go look up xT-Zealot's 'Soulforged' fic, which inspired my views on the weaponry and bonding.**

**The twins: Yeah… This'll be interesting. Once again, Melanie is rather aggressive towards Orion, though keeps it relatively civil out of professionalism, and Miltia is quiet when he's around. As shown during the interlude, however, Miltia does talk freely around those she's comfortable with, and the two have more jobs than just keeping Orion protected in Vacuo. Yes they have slept with Neo, while under the influence alcohol, and they do regret it somewhat. Neo flirts with them to mess with them. And yes the two are 'together-together' as Nora would put it, but that's not just blatant fan work, there's a very good reason why they are, as Junior's thoughts during the interlude hinted towards a rather dark past. Something we'll discover far later, but keep it in mind.**

**The airship: OK, so, as shown in RWBY, actual airships have a lot of room, allowing people to move freely about it. Stands to reason that they'd have cabins for higher paying customers, and Junior, as a damn good info broker, has strings he can pull for something simple like that. The airdocks are essentially a variation of docks to the water, only far higher in the air, with elevators to allow people to go between the ground level (which is what one would expect a modern airport to look like) and the docks themselves.**

**That should be everything. Next time, we'll actually be in Vacuo, where we shall meet one half of the 'bros' of RWBY, deliver the shipment, and get into a lot of trouble that Orion really wishes he was cold-hearted enough to avoid. Only one-half, as further research tells me that Neptune is Mistral born, only Sun comes from Vacuo. For those of you who wanted to see Neptune, sorry, it won't be for a while. If I get enough people wanting to see him or anyone else (except for the villians, because I have plans for when to meet them (Adam does not actually count as a villian at this point in time)) then I may schedule him in somewhere down the road.**

**So Read! Review! Make connections so you can get sweet first-class travel arrangements!**


	16. Chapter 16

**RRC: Your reviews give me more ideas to work and an understanding of what you think! And allow me to answer questions, as I don't actually check my PM box on fanfiction. Ever. *deadpan***

**Connections: Meh, if you can already acquire high-class travel arrangements, then you don't need connections obviously. So feel free to ignore it.**

** Raidentensho: Haven't thought that far ahead, honestly. Mistral will be interesting, however, and will happen sometime I assure you. However, he will more than likely break the naming scheme of it and go by a figure of Norse mythology, as I know a bit more about that and much prefer it over greek/roman mythology. But yes there will be an alias.**

**Neo's height: Be that as it may, she's still 4'9", thus midget. Psycho midget with a blade and illusions and a criminal mind.**

** forgottonone: Hey, you're new! Yes, I am trying to explore the world as I picture it, and pass on love to the so far minor characters. It's why you're not really seeing much of Ruby and Yang despite their fairly big role as his roommates, as they get plenty of attention in canon. Monty made a wonderful world, and I feel that it's possible to do so much with it, not just with the main characters, but those he hasn't really touched much of. Their stories, their personalities, their general lifestyle, what is it like compared to main cast? How do people such as Tukson, Junior, and the twins go about their life in this dangerous world? What is life like in cities aside from the main focus of Vale? That's what I want to find out.**

** edus: I know human biology, not Grimm biology. May as well use that knowledge, right? As Orion pointed out, he has no desire whatsoever to combat the Grimm, so while he will make a few preparations for such an event, he will mainly stick to what I refer to as "anti-personnel combat gear", as that type of enemy will be far more common.**

**On to Orion's experiences of Vacuo!**

… **Than to Need and Not Have**

"_Welcome to Vacuo! Please watch your step and keep a watchful eye on all possessions!"_ Isn't that a rather cheery greeting? Regardless of my thoughts on the matter, it was played over the intercom as we exited the elevator from the airdocks, finally arriving in Vacuo. Shifting the bag on my shoulder, I cast a look at Melanie, who would be more willing to give full answers to my questions than her sister or Neo. Or at least openly answer.

"Thievery that much of a big deal here?" Melanie maintained an indifferent expression, shrugging at the question posed to her. Miltia was keeping a watchful eye around us, and Neo was cheerily looking around at the sights, umbrella open and twirling over her shoulder as we walked.

"In Inner Vacuo, not so much, as the police force are more active, and strict, making even pickpocketing quite risky. In Outer Vacuo, it is more of a legitimate concern. The flipside of that is the inhabitants are split in two: those trying to make a living and those who don't give a damn. The former won't do anything, the obviousness of Miltia's and my weapons will keep them back. The latter? They'd attack anyone short of a Hunter simply for the resources they'd get out of it." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Great, while Inner Vacuo was essentially Vale, Outer Vacuo was gangland at its finest. This should be fun.

"Anywhere we need to avoid?" Miltia spoke up this time, surprisingly.

"Outskirts dangerous." Which meant that so long as we stay from the outer edge of Vacuo, we should be fine against the opposition. I pulled out my scroll, scanning through it.

"Alright then… Hotel is in the middle of where Inner transitions to Outer. Meanwhile, Junior's contact is halfway between Inner Vacuo and the actual outskirts, so we'll be traversing through some possibly unfriendly territory. I vote we find the hotel, and then branch out from there to find someone to guide us, hopefully, around the worst of the turf wars there." If I remembered correctly from my, at this point, somewhat vague memories, Sun Wukong hails from here, though he emigrated to Mistral and joined Haven before the start of the show. As I myself have ended up before the start of the show, there may be a chance of meeting him, which could be useful in the long run. Yay, connections! Stepping outside we were immediately hit by the intense heat of the area, making me thankful I was wearing my lightweight jacket.

Vacuo is in the middle of a desert, and it's not a very welcoming environment. The twins remained indifferent, more than likely because they've dealt with it a few times. Neo simply had her umbrella providing her shade from the overhead sun, and I myself used to live in a desert for several years before all of this happened. Melanie spoke up as we walked away from the airdock. "Miltia and I know where the hotel is; it's the one we stay at every time we're here. Neo will have her own accommodations, or so she says." The only response to that was for Neo to once again don a cheery smile, so we quickly moved on with the conversation. "We rarely venture into Outer Vacuo ourselves, though, so finding someone is a surprisingly smart move on your part." I did roll my eyes this time, only because she was far enough behind me that she couldn't see it. Her little grudge would be irritating at best on this trip. I gestured for her to step in front.

"Lead the way, oh gracious one." A glare was all I received before she did so, Miltia moving in unison on our right, and the two led the way through the streets and crowds, I and a cheerful Neo following along.

* * *

Arriving at the hotel, the twins and I checked in, and we stepped outside after doing so, while Neo, scroll in hand, began to bargain with the woman at the counter as best as she could without a voice. Rolling my neck, I cast a glance around us. The area between Inner Vacuo and Outer Vacuo, generally referred to by the populace as "the Strip", was a mix of the luxurious architecture of Inner Vacuo and the normal practicality of what Outer Vacuo is said to had. Still a police presence, but nowhere near as much as in Inner Vacuo, just enough to discourage the gangs from encroaching any closer. Naturally there were a few incidents between the police and the armed criminals, but the two sides seemed mostly content to stay away from each other. The Strip was filled with various merchant stalls and short-term residence options, hotels and motels for example, essentially serving as a tourist trap/massive marketplace for Vacuo. As I turned to address the twins for any ideas, I paused as I felt a relatively powerful figure approaching rapidly… on the rooftops?

_Fate is pushing me somewhere, I can tell…_

Turning back around, which confused the girls, I scanned the rooftops and found whom I was looking for. A blond young man dressed in an open white shirt and blue jeans with a monkey's tail was traversing the varied heights of the rooftops quite easily. Well, I suppose if anyone could get me where I wanted… As his head turned in my direction, I raised a hand with a smile on my face and waved at him. A return wave was my only response, until he changed direction toward me. Or, I assumed, towards the attractive twins directly behind me. I felt Melanie approach me from behind and hiss in my ear.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Hmm, aggravated much? I just let out a low chuckle as the blond approached, feeling Neo finally exit the hotel behind us.

"Getting us our guide." Finally he landed, a wide smile on his face as he greeted us.

"Hello travelers! I assume you lovely ladies and gentleman have a reason for waving me down from my run?" Yay for a cheerful fellow! And laid back, which will make him easy to deal with. He'll be a nice counterbalance to my companions. I gave him a polite nod.

"A pleasure to meet you. My name's Opal, the 'lovely ladies' behind me are Neo, Melanie, and Miltia, and yes there is a reason that I waved you down." I extended my hand , which he took and shook firmly.

"Name's Sun. Acrobat, thief, and one of the nicest folks in all of Vacuo, if I do say so myself. How can I help you?" Huh, I guess he does break the law without a second thought. Fun. Withdrawing my hand, I dug in my pocket for my scroll.

"Thief? You're pretty brazen, aren't you?" Sun shrugged at that, perfectly relaxed around us while Neo wandered around him, watching his tail swing back forth with a childish gleam in her eye.

"So long as I avoid Inner Vacuo, I'm perfectly fine. I'm well known by most of the locals here, and while a number of the merchants don't like me, there's an equal amount who'll give me free stuff because I'm willing to help keep the local thugs off their back." That's right, Sun is a skilled fighter, even without considering his staff-gunchucks weapons. And he is something of a noble guy. Withdrawing my scroll from my pocket, I brought up the address that Junior provided, showing it to the blond faunus.

"We need to make a delivery from Vale out to here, but while my companions have a decent level of knowledge of Inner Vacuo, they're far less uncertain once we get past the Strip. I'd rather avoid the petty squabbling of the gangs, so I was hoping that you might know a way around them to our destination?" As he seemed to be considering it, his tail was dancing just out of reach of a determined Neo, who was trying to grasp it. Only half-heartedly, as at her top speed she'd easily catch it, but she seemed to enjoy playing with him. As he thought about it, I spoke again. "Of course, we'll pay you for guiding us." That got his attention solely on me rather than assessing the twins, and as his eyes lit up, he opened his mouth to speak only to squawk in pain as Neo, tired of playing, grabbed his tail and tugged it hard. Sun immediately try to pull away from the heterochromic midget, but she refused to let go.

"Hey hey, come on, let go! That's sensitive, little miss!" As amusing as it was to see a monkey try to pull his tail away from a childish Neo, we did have business to conclude. Sighing, I stepped up and grabbed Neo's wrist, getting her attention.

"Let him go, Neo." She directed her attention to me, giving me a childish pout. She had been acting rather immature ever since we met up with the twins… I'm just going to assume that she doesn't bother around me because I can see right through it. For now I'll just humor her. "Let the monkey man go, we have things to do." She continued to pout, not relinquishing her grasp on a still panicking Sun. I shook my head at her pout. "Fine, I'll buy you ice cream later. Leave the poor guy alone." At that she immediately brightened, releasing the tail that immediately pulled itself behind Sun, who was watching Neo and I nervously. Neo stepped back to be my side, for all the world a smiling little girl, and slipped her hand into mine. I raised an eyebrow but didn't bother asking; don't press the psychotic one when she's actually being cooperative. I turned my attention back to the wary Sun.

"Sorry, Neo's a bit of a handful at times." She pouted at me from the corner of my eye, but made no actual sign of disagreement, just discontent at being called out. "Back to the original matter of payment. 200 lien now, and 200 more when you get us back here, avoiding as much conflict as possible." Sun, though hesitant, immediately agreed, and we shook hands. I looked back to the twins only to see Miltia holding out 200 lien that she pulled from- Once again, don't want to know. Taking it from her and thanking her, I handed it to Sun, who immediately counted in and stuffing it in his pocket. He spun, holding up a hand and pointing forward.

"Onwards, my new friends!" So saying, he started walking, my dysfunctional group following close behind.

* * *

"So, any particular reason why you are acting like a child, Neo?" We had walked almost a mile so far, Sun greeting various residents of the city as we passed and occasionally taking a small detour to avoid certain areas. The twins had remained silent but vigilant, while Neo still held my hand in hers, swinging it lightly as we walked, for all the world a child at first glance. Which was bull, considering I know that Neo is older than me, by a good few years, judging by her comments and overall attitude. I had whispered to her, wishing to keep our little conversation private, and I felt her Aura, and the world to a certain degree, shift as she responded to me.

*Because I feel like it.* At my deadpan look she just stuck out her tongue at me. *Contrary to what you may believe, unless I'm looking to relieve an itch this is how I normally act around others. You caught me off-guard, what with being able to understand me right off, and ever since I saw no need to play a child. Here, though, around the twins and all these strangers, I can be as much of a child as I want, and people will let me get away with it.* Before I could question why she acted like a child at all, Sun had spun back to address us.

"So, what exactly are you delivering? It must be something odd, as Outer Vacuo doesn't see many couriers." I cast a quick glance behind me at the twins, who maintained neutral expressions at the questioning, before turning back to Sun, shrugging and hefting the bag in my left hand to draw attention to it.

"Some books is all, really. The twins were hired to protect me and these as Outer Vacuo isn't the nicest of places, and I'm getting paid to deliver. Just a short trip." Sun raised an eyebrow, before throwing up his hands exasperatedly.

"Books is all? Where's the secret in that?" He drooped in feigned depression, still walking backwards with a pretty good degree of skill, not having run into anyone or anything. He straightened out quickly though. "Do you guys work for different employers then?" I nodded calmly at the energetic blond.

"Miltia and Melanie's employer runs a nightclub in Vale." He also did a lot more, but Sun didn't need to know that. Still no reaction from behind me, I could feel them remaining quite calm, ignoring the occasional flare of irritation or anger from Melanie that I assumed happened whenever she looked at me. "I work for a bookstore myself, and Neo here happened to be traveling this way herself." Sun raised an eyebrow at that.

"The kid was going to travel by herself originally? Isn't that rather dangerous?" Before I could answer, Neo tugged on my arm. I looked at her, and she shook her head. I sighed, before quickly coming up with something to placate Sun. An idea hit me and, smirking, I bent down to whisper in Neo's ear. Seeing her face light up, I stood, slipping my hand from hers.

"Neo's young, but she's far from defenseless." As I said that, I felt the world shift again, but this time no message was forthcoming. It's the first time I've actually felt Neo use her Semblance to truly craft a visual illusion around me, and it was an odd experience. My eyes told me she was still walking next to us, eyes closed and face still smiling, but I could _feel _her moving, or at least the majority of her Aura, some small amount remaining inside of the illusion to power it. Hmm… knowing how that feels could come in handy. I spoke again to Sun, who was none the wiser. "She's quite clever, and has a fairly powerful Semblance at her disposal to keep her out of most trouble." Sun tilted his head.

"What kind of Sembl-AAHN!" He jumped away from his position with a screech of pain to turn and stare. As he did so, the Neo by my side shattered like glass and the once empty space where Neo really was shattered in turn, revealing her to be behind Sun where she had just pulled Sun's tail, a feral smirk and a mischievous gleam in her eye. I just chuckled, clapping on him the back.

"That kind of Semblance. Almost no one can tell when she uses it, which makes it easy for her to avoid trouble." Neo waited a moment for us to catch up, Sun maneuvering to keep me between him and her. Once we did, she hopped up easily and landed on my shoulders, staggering me for a moment before I adjusted to her weight. Huh, she's rather light… I gave her a narrow glare, which she only smiled at, before I sighed and gave in, starting to walk forward again. At least she opened up her umbrella and gave us some shade, which was nice of her. "She's also fairly dexterous and agile, so she can easily outrun trouble." As we walked, I raised an eyebrow at Sun. "Meanwhile, I'm assuming you use more than your fists when you need to defend yourself." Sun shrugged easily before rapidly whipping out his weapons. It's odd. Now that I'm actually paying attention, I can feel bits of Aura in certain people's weaponry, making it truly an extension of themselves. Junior's henchmen and most of the people around us, I don't feel a thing, but with Melanie, Miltia, Sun, even Neo's weaponry I can feel their Aura connecting to their tools as easily as it flowed through them.

Sun held his weapons up with half of each behind his back, chains on his shoulder. "Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang. When I'm pressed too hard, these guys get me out of tight spots." With more rapid movement he connected the gunchucks and formed them into a rather ornate quarterstaff that he twirled expertly in his hands. Neo shifted on my shoulders, signifying her interest, while I felt Melanie and Miltia's interest spark at having a guide who was rather capable of defending himself. "I don't like using them on most of the punks around here because it'd be a waste of ammo, but in this form I can just knock them around for a while." My own attention focused on the rather solid weapon.

"And you made it yourself?" He nodded, making a quick flurry of movements to collapse his staff and sheath it behind his back. "Would you mind telling me how each of the pieces connect so firmly to each other? In a normal case if you hit someone hard enough they'd disconnect, wouldn't they?" Sun shrugged.

"Normally, yeah. But I had been thinking about that little flaw while making them, and so…"

* * *

"Sooo… I'm guessing this is new?" After an enlightening conversation with Sun on weapon crafting, which the females almost immediately tuned out—their loss—we had proceeded rather deep into Outer Vacuo. The architecture was shabbier, in a way, and the people seemed more wary, less trusting. I could see it in how they moved: when alone they made themselves smaller, as if to be overlooked, and when in a group they kept close together. I could tell the others felt it too; Sun had taken to walking beside me instead of in front like he had been at the beginning, and the twins were walking much closer. Neo had become a little bit more solemn, though her face still maintained a bright expression as she watched the people pass by. We had just turned a corner, about a mile left to walk, only to be confronted a few blocks down by a shoddy wooden fence patrolled by a bunch of thugs. The sight of it had Sun cursing under his breath, hence my comment. In reply he shook his head, lowering his voice as he stepped closer.

"Yeah, this area is more of a contested battleground than anyone's territory. Toll booths like this are common on gang grounds, but on 'neutral' ground it's considered suicide because of how many people could respond violently to such an action. This wasn't here two days ago, so either something changed in the power struggles or these guys are idiots. Either way, they outnumber us, they have weaponry, and unfortunately this is the only path to meet your guy without actually dealing with a gang." I followed his earlier example and cursed under my breath, casting a glance at Neo to see her studying the group ahead intently. The twins had advanced to stand on either side of me and Sun, Miltia on my right and Melanie on Sun's left as we took in the situation. Melanie raised an eyebrow.

"So what? We can pay a toll. Junior may not be happy about it but it's easier than starting a fight we don't need to." I had taken to looking at the guards myself, while Sun shook his head in response.

"Normally, yeah, but because we have the two of you traveling… let's just say the toll isn't lien." Sun's tone and expression had darkened quite a bit at this, very obviously disapproving of this. My own hands clenched into fists as I struggled to rein in my Aura, and I could tell the twins, despite maintaining neutral expressions, were very angry as well.

"Why?" Miltia spoke, and this time everyone knew she was pissed; there was plenty of anger in that one statement. Sun growled under his breath. Huh, faunus are actually quite menacing when they growl. Good to note. Also, don't ever piss off Blake to the point that she does, mainly because I'll be too busy picturing her damn ears to actually be threatened by her growling.

"As you know, Outer Vacuo doesn't have much in the way of laws. Might makes right, essentially. Lots of guys try it, which left girls to either travel in groups, learn to defend themselves, join up with someone powerful, or any combination there of. They get away with it because no one really cares about random strangers here." I frowned while he talked, still studying the guards. I spoke up this time, garnering their attention with a completely neutral tone.

"Sun, Malachites." They all turned to me, though I didn't look away from the guards. "I don't see much in the way of close range weaponry, just a lot of guns. They don't look that strong either. If it came to a fight, you three could probably take them, right?" Sun frowned as he glanced at the barricade. Melanie spoke up again, irritated.

"Easily. We get paid for a reason, Opal. However, as you so _kindly_ pointed out, they have a lot of guns, and there's no real cover between here and there. It's a killing field, and we don't have any long range options." I hummed as she raised an eyebrow. "Unless those ornaments on your wrists have some useful trick here?" I shook my head slightly, maintaining focus on the opposition ahead of us.

"No no, they're not really meant for this sort of thing. So if you got close you'd be able to tear these assholes apart?" Sun looked at back at me, as did the other two. I could feel Neo leaning over slightly to get a better look at my forcibly calm expression.

"Yeah, but like Melanie said…" I raised a hand to stop him.

"Let me and Neo worry about where their attention is. Once I have their attention, get in as close as you can. When all of three of you have a chance, attack at once, and quickly. Fifteen men against you three shouldn't be too hard." Miltia frowned at me, while Sun looked thoughtful.

"If you can distract them sufficiently, then yeah, we could easily deal with them. How do you plan to distract them, though?" I shrugged, careful to not dislodge Neo.

"Easy. The same way I distract everyone else. When I start talking, you three will need to take to the rooftops, quickest way to them. Don't worry, they won't see you." So saying, without even waiting for confirmation, I started walking forward, Neo still riding on my shoulders. Melanie stamped her foot behind me, but Sun's low voice convinced her and her sister to follow him and head off to carry out their part, so they moved away to better get to higher ground. Neo shifted a little, and I felt her Semblance take effect.

*Talking may grab their attention, but I doubt that you'll be able to keep it, especially when the twins and your new monkey friend start racing for them.* I just chuckled grimly, garnering her attention.

"That's where you come in, Neo." I could practically feel her tilting her head quizzically. "How hard would it be to maintain an illusion of the rooftops exactly as they are, to cover the others?" Neo began to giggle through her Semblance, getting my plan.

*Sneaky. The company you keep seems to have rubbed off on you. I approve, and this could be a brief bit of entertainment.* I felt her Aura… _flex_ would be the best word, and suddenly there were trace amounts of her Aura above and around me, concealing the view of the rooftops from the streets. If I couldn't feel that the others were making quiet progress towards the barricade, I wouldn't suspect anything. Still, best to keep to the plan. I approached calmly, garnering attention as only a man carrying a child could. Several guns were lazily pointed in my general direction, with only one pointed directly at me, the man closest keeping his pointed down the street while the others tracked me. I was curious about that, until Neo spoke up.

*The monkey was right, advancing straight down weapons out would have ended quite badly. I count multiple automatic weapons, and the leader, the one coming to talk to us, is carrying a grenade launcher.* I held back the urge to ask where the _fuck_ these assholes got a grenade launcher as the apparent leader spoke, a mocking tone in his voice.

"Hey there, stranger! It's grand to meet you! Judging by your clothes, you're new to Vacuo. Well, this here be our toll booth; you want to keep going this way, you pay the fee, or we shoot you, yeah?" A few of them laughed condescendingly, while I gave them a beatific smile.

"Well hello there. My friend and I here noticed your set-up, but unfortunately we are rather strapped for cash. I had hoped that you would be willing to look the other way, just this once?" The leader leered at Neo, and I restrained the urge to deck him right here and now.

"Well now, see, we just can't do that, sad to say. Wouldn't be fair to all the other folks who've paid the toll, you know? We'll settle for perhaps some of what you're carrying in that bag of yours: must be something useful if you're carrying an obvious bag like that out here." I shook my head, my calm smile still in place.

"I am terribly sorry, but all I have are books with me. Books that I simply cannot part with except for the one who I am to deliver them to. Surely we can work something out, as businessmen?" The leader just chuckled nastily while a few more lowered their weapons, obviously not viewing me and Neo as threats at this point. _Big mistake._

"Sure, I suppose we could possibly come to that. How about… you leave the girl here while you go run your delivery? Little girls have no real place in business after all. And this way, you don't get shot, and we get to have some _fun._" I know some of humankind had sunk, but something in me snapped at that comment and the dirty expression on his face. While Neo was indeed older than me, what he had planned was abhorrent for even adult women, let alone children. Luckily, the others had arrived, and it was time to act. My Aura began to emanate from my skin in orange wisps, garnering curious attention as I tilted my head at them, smile slowly fading.

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to agree to that. Or really, any sort of deal involving anything less than you scum of the earth born of disease ridden whores being completely eliminated as any type of power." The leader began to scowl, and started to raise his hand when I barked a command to my allies. "**DROP THEM NOW!**"

Why they chose to listen, I had no idea; they had their shots already lined up, they'd heard the conversation, maybe they even chose to act because they saw my patience had quickly run out. Regardless, the area exploded into action as on the opposite side of the barricade the twelve men found themselves being assaulted by two very angry young women and one furious monkey faunus, all armed and extremely dangerous. As the sounds of violence rang and the three on this side spun, Neo flipped from my shoulders and launched herself at the man on the leader's right, wrapping her legs around his neck in a far more hostile manner than her previous position atop me. Before the other two could react, I had already stepped forward and, channeling my Aura, my right foot lashed out, striking the leader behind the kneecap and dropping him to the ground, howling in pain. My right fist drew back as with a pulse of my aura the metal on my forearm expanded into a gauntlet, encasing my arm from just below my elbow to my fingertips. Unleashing all of my rage through my soul, I struck out at his head, smashing him with the hard metal and sending him hurling through the barricade as Neo rapidly dropped the other guard, leaving the combat to the other three who were easily tearing the remaining guards apart. Breathing deeply I let out another pulse, different in intent, to order the gauntlet to slowly collapse, as Neo approached me.

*While I do appreciate the thought, it wasn't really necessary to get angry on my behalf over what these fools said.* While she communicated, she clambered easily onto my shoulders as my armor finished collapsing, while I attempted to calm myself down before I did something regretful. *I get the feeling that it wasn't just about me.* I slowly nodded, taking deep breaths.

"Just… following a part of my moral code. I would do the same for any woman, the fact that he's a pedophile along with a rapist just pissed me off even more." I frowned, clenching my hand and forcing down my Aura as it was no longer needed. On the other side the three quickly finished off the last of them and were beginning to make sure they were down. I quickly glanced at the other two bodies that Neo had gone after and frowned at their still forms. "You killed them?" Neo shrugged from atop me.

*Their intentions towards me, while flattering in a sick way, were something I really didn't agree with. I had to teach an object lesson to petty peons. They had no right to even think of me that way, let alone attempt to do acts against me.* Her message was laced with irritation. *Only those I approve of get to think of me in that way.* She tilted her head to look at me, right hand holding her umbrella while her left guided my face to look up at her, eyes currently brown and white. *Those such as the twins, and you.* I shifted my expression to deadpan.

"I feel so honored, really." Neo giggled, giving me a light caress before pulling her hand away while I sighed. "Please tell me that you don't actually view me romantically." She openly communicated amusement in her next words.

*Of course not. Still, you do interest me for various reasons, and perhaps I may even convince you to satisfy that interest.* I made a mental note to watch all of my drinks if I knew she was nearby. Wouldn't put it past her if she got bored enough… Also made a second mental note to learn how to defend myself, knowing that if she really wanted to do something to me at this point I was relatively powerless to stop her. I tapped on her thigh and gestured for her to climb down. She pouted, but did as asked and hopped off while I wandered over to the leader. She tilted her head as I began searching him. *Now, why would you be doing that?*

"Spoils of war. Or in this case, really one-sided massacre of people who don't deserve to live." I pulled away the man's grenade launcher, which was held on a strap, and slung it over my own body, as well as pulling out a few small knives and a few hand grenades. I whistled as I stored the smaller items in various pockets of my jackets. "Where in the hell did these assholes get this kind of gear?"

"Probably from the very outskirts." I looked up and saw Sun, Melanie, and Miltia had rejoined us, looking a bit happier after the beating given to these guys. Sun was the one who'd spoken. "The border between town and the wilds isn't really safe, so while there are troops out there, various gangs or just random folk will also volunteer to help out in return for pay or supplies." Sun was frowning at the grenade launcher slung around me, as he assessed the others. "Still, you have a point. Most civilians don't get issued something like that."

"Probably a black market deal. People die against the Grimm on a regular basis, and there are some people who live as scavengers picking up the weaponry and armor of the dead before the military can retrieve it themselves. They then sell it to whoever is willing to pay a decent amount." It was Melanie speaking this time, and I could feel that she was much calmer, and contemplative. "You were right, these guys couldn't fight worth a damn. The only dangerous things were the guns. Speaking of which, are you really going to keep that?" She gestured at my prize, and I shrugged, maneuvering it so it was slung across my back.

"Why not? May as well hold onto it while we're still here in case something like this happens again. We should probably pick up the other gear as well. We can either use it ourselves if we get into a bad situation, or sell it off to someone." At Sun's look I shrugged. "Or turn them in to the authorities—bet they'd love to reclaim some of this. _After_ all of our business here is done." Sun sighed as the twins looked back at the people they had beaten. Neo had picked up an automatic from one of the two she had killed and was playfully miming out shooting it at various buildings. A quick glance assured me the safety was on.

"Not like I can tell you otherwise… Right, let's finish up here and deliver your stuff, yeah?" A firm nod from me had us spreading out and ensuring that the situation was over, as well as collecting useful items.

* * *

"That was anticlimactic." I flopped down on one of the two beds in the room, Neo swinging her legs on the other. After the incident, our dysfunctional little group had met up with Junior's contact and delivered the books, getting a small written letter in turn that was to be delivered to Junior holding information to a bank account that would have the funds. Complex, but whatever. Sun had guided us back to the hotel and, after getting paid and exchanging scroll contact info with me, had wandered off to whatever he got up to. The twins and I had retired to our shared room, Neo joining us while we were at it. We had carefully piled the weaponry in one corner after writing down in our scrolls what we had, then turned to whatever we chose to do. Which was mainly Melanie and Miltia looking up something on Melanie's scroll while Neo took turns playing this world's variation of Bejeweled with me. After some time, I had gone to take a shower, as the hotel provided complimentary towels and shower supplies, and when I had gotten out the twins had left, Neo informing me they'd gone for a walk. I had just paid the pizza guy (at Junior's expense) and placed the food on the counter. Neo tilted her head at me quizzically.

*Really? I figured the stand-off with the guys with guns was fairly abnormal.* I sighed, rolling over and sitting up to look at her properly.

"Yeah, but I can't shake this feeling that I'm missing something. I have really bipolar luck. Example A: When I met the twins, they were both half-naked, and so tried to maul me when I accidentally saw. Melanie's fault. In turn, I made friends with Junior. All of that came from a simple book delivery. A single book delivery, in town, got me in with the Bear Crew." Neo nodded her head, though she had giggled at the first part. Still creepy. "My point is, this was far too easy." Neo hummed across her Semblance, wandering over to grab a slice of pizza for herself and handing one to me as she sat back down.

*I wouldn't worry too much about it. Maybe you're just being paranoid?* I considered that as I bit into my pizza thoughtfully. True, the world wasn't really out to get me, it just had a sick sense of humor at times. Eh. I shrugged, taking another bite as I grabbed the remote.

"Possibly. Think there's anything good?" The next hour was spent watching, surprisingly, Looney Tunes. How in the name of whatever deity exists they had it, I had no idea, but I wasn't complaining, because, hey, Looney Tunes. Actually, thinking about it, I blame the rampant fourth-wall breaking; they somehow engineered themselves everywhere that cable exists. Neo enjoyed it too, so it was mostly silent in the room aside from my laughter. Neo's was still non-vocal and expressed only to me, and it was _still _bugging me how she did that. An episode ended when I heard beeping from my scroll. I pulled it out, starting to expand it as I didn't recognize the sound.

"Thought I set actual ring tones for people…" I muttered as I took it off sleep, then blinked. Blinked again. It was an alert message from the Aura watching. But why, I had barely used any… my entire body stilled as I accessed the function.

Both Melanie and Miltia had Aura levels below 50%.

**AN: AAAAAND CLIFFHANGER. Yeah, I know, I'm evil. But if I continued, the chapter length would be far too long. A few thoughts for you:**

**Sun: Whoo, monkey boy! Yeah, I brought him, and he's a casual person willing to help people out, as despite his rampant petty criminal acts, he's a decent guy at heart. The fact that I paid him helped. Hopefully I kept him mostly in character.**

**Neo: Yeah, Neo is actually starting to become kind of **_**big**_** here. Not what I planned, but meh, I'll run with it. She acts like a child a lot of the time because it amuses her and other reasons that we'll learn later, possibly. She generally refrains from doing so around Orion as she can keep actual conversations around him, as compared to everyone else she normally interacts with. Her illusions will be more than just visual illusions, as I've somewhat demonstrated, so she'll be a very nasty adversary. In turn though, Orion can actually bypass her Semblance by not trusting his normal senses. Which is odd feeling to him, but he's entirely paranoid around the psycho midget, so he's quite cautious.**

**Gauntlets: So, yeah, first look. They have a few tricks that'll pop up over the course of next chapter. For a visual, they're essentially black-grey armor going from just below his elbows to over his hands, ending in true metal glove fashion, allowing him to use his hands semi-freely despite their covering. He can still grab various objects, but won't be able to use most common firearms in this world with them active. They're also a little bulky on the inner and outermost parts, which hold some tricks that we'll see. **

**So next time! Miltia and Melanie have gotten themselves into trouble without Orion knowing until they're knee-deep in it! Orion, being the kind soul he is, has to figure out how best to pull them out of the fire with his admittedly meager combat skills and knowledge of this world, with only Neo and Sun to help. Stay tuned!**

**Many thanks to Veil for two things: First, proofreading this work. Much obliged. Second, naming the above gauntlets! They shall be called Caestus when referring to one and ****Caestūs when referring to both.**

**Please read! Review! Be wary of sadists who take an unhealthy interest in you! Unless you're into that. *shrug* I ain't gonna judge.**


	17. Chapter 17

**RRC: You review, I reply and write, you review again… It's a circle, yes? Please don't break the circle, it's a very useful tool. Would be unhappy if you broke it.**

** edus: Of course it wasn't. Nothing is ever truly easy, especially with Orion and his bipolar luck in play.**

**Pairings: Two reasons why I won't tell you. First, I personally still have no actual set pairing setup. I only know who I won't pair Orion with, who consists of: Ruby, Weiss, Pyrrha, Nora, Penny, Cinder, and Emerald. Everyone else is fair game, though with different possibilities of happening. The second? I'm a bit of a sadist and enjoy annoying you with various ways this can go, so have fun guessing.**

** Raidentensho: *blink. Blink again.* Wow. So… totally future ideas. Later, as I already had plans for this chapter… and I don't feel like deviating from them. Orion will be coming back to Vacuo at some point later, however, so good to keep in mind…**

** Godrik55: Another newcomer! And it's mainly Orion and Sun being big goddamn heroes, Neo's just helping because she's bored. Plus, "Neo" and the word "Hero" should never relate to one another.**

** .9847: You just hit random number to end a name with? And while I appreciate the idea, I have my own plans for long-range weaponry. Plus, I haven't seen Dredd, so Orion hasn't either. He will have long-range options in the future, no worries.**

**So, I also received a pm, and with his permission, I share it here, as I suspect several of you are asking the same question:**

**From 765mkojin: I understand what you are doing with your character but isn't going to have to eventually fight Grimm assuming you're going to follow the show even when they come up with new material and the fact they've been alluding to Grimm charging city and I mean something worse than when vol.2 ended. I am not saying change how he is doing things I like the smart approach he is taking**

**While I did mention it in a reply last chapter, I'll restate it here: ****Most** **of what Orion will create will be for human vs human combat, partially because he intends to avoid the Grimm, and partially because he actually has knowledge of human biology, unlike Grimm. That doesn't mean he won't have a few preparations set up to combat Grimm in the future; point of fact, his **_**main**_ **weapon, as it were, will be mainly a Grimm-combat tool. Plus, a weapon is a weapon: multipurpose against various enemies, depending on how you use it. **

**Originally, I had this in the AN. However, I felt it better served at the start:**

**Music: I felt like putting in a few themes. I stuck solely to works by Jeff Williams this time, and yes we had to have the warthog music to make it work X3. I am easily amused at times. Feel free to ignore them, they're little more than suggestions or a look into what I'm listening to when I'm writing.**

**That'll be everything. On with the story!**

**Cliché Hero Moment**

Panting heavily, Melanie scowled at the man across from her and her sister. He stood at ease, barely winded, with the blades in his hands held at his sides, pointy end towards them. Surrounding them were several men and women dressed in various styles of clothing, each holding different types of melee weapon, be it a pipe, a bat, or even proper weaponry such as swords and axes. She cast a glance at her sister, who was also panting heavily, but at least held her claws crossed in front of her in a guard. Miltia's eyes were darting rapidly around her, looking for the bitch that kept cutting into them when they least expected her to do so. Melanie restrained the urge to growl under her breath. This was becoming a very bad situation, far worse than she admittedly expected it to be.

**-Flashback-**

"_Are you sure we should have just left him, Melanie?" Miltia asked this as she walked in step with her twin, her face—which normally held a neutral expression—furrowed a little in worry. Melanie scowled, vexed. Ever since that man, Opal, had appeared, Miltia had changed. Not good or bad, but she had actually befriended the bastard, despite knowing of Melanie's grievances, and tended to think of him when it was slow. Melanie would admit, the man was odd; he had no past, held little knowledge of Remnant, and unknowingly worked for a member of the White Fang. He also paid little attention to people's status—he admitted that his roommates consisted of a Hunter and his nieces, yet he freely sought out the company of people such as Junior and, apparently, the midget, though she doubted he knew the entirety of Neo's crimes. Still, he was rude, and Melanie waited eagerly for the day that he stepped out of line around Junior so she could finally vent the frustrations that had accumulated ever since their meeting._

"_Worried about him, Miltia?" Miltia scowled at her sister, unappreciative of the tone Melanie had taken. Melanie sighed, dropping her scowl as her sister did the same a second later. "Neo said she would watch over him, and while I dislike them both, I have no doubt in Neo's ability to thrash anyone who attempts to harm him. Which is nice for our paycheck." That last statement was spoken in a slightly lighter tone at the thought. Junior was paying them both a decent amount to both ensure the arrival of the books and the safety of Opal; she assumed the latter so Junior could hire him to go to other cities on a semi-regular basis. Miltia sighed in turn._

"_It's not that. I feel a little bad just ditching him, especially in the clutches of __**her**__." Melanie raised an eyebrow as they turned a corner and began their approach to a sort of arena-like structure in the distance._

"_I think Neo's more interested in keeping her new toy in good condition than anything else, really." Miltia shook her head._

"_While I am a little worried about that, it's not that either. I'm just a bit upset that we're hiding this from him. We already know he really doesn't care, especially after that incident today. You saw him, he was the first to advocate violence as a solution, and he didn't bat an eye when Neo acted." Melanie tilted her head curiously at her sister, causing her to huff. "Don't look at me like that, you saw what I did. Neo killed her two, and he's not blind. We could have just told him what was going on instead of all this…" –she waved an arm around her irritably– "secrecy. At the very least we could have left during the day to do this." Melanie shrugged at her sister, still a bit irritated at the concern she was showing for the man._

"_Be that as it may, sister, Junior's orders. And if we had told him, he might have been tempted to follow us and possibly put himself in danger like an idiot; if he had hurt himself that way, I probably would hurt him even more for costing us some of our pay." Miltia gave her a mild glare which Melanie ignored, unrepentant. Opal was an issue between the two, but not a major one. Miltia huffed again, shifting her attention forward and dropping the matter._

"_Fine. Let's get this over with, I want to go back to that bed. Think maybe we could convince Neo to drag him off to her room for a bit? I'd like some time alone…" The red twin trailed off as the two entered the arena, finding themselves in a different situation than they had expected. Several men and women, armed, and prepared for them, arrayed in one large group ahead of them with spotlights shining down on the twins, instead of several scattered groups unaware of their presence, which had been the plan so the girls could thrash them quickly and go home. Advancing from the mob at a casual pace was a tall man dressed in leather armor, twin blades sheathed across his back. He stopped a few feet from his group, inclining his head towards the twins, who had slowly assumed combat stances, Miltia triggering her weapon to unfold._

"_Ladies." He spoke calmly, despite the tense aura of the situation. His arms crossed his chest as he shifted his weight to one side. "You need to learn to be more discreet. Then again, Junior was always a very blunt person. So, to what do we owe the pleasure?"_

**-End Flashback-**

From there it spiraled downhill. After a terse exchange of words, several men had rushed the twins from the main group while the leader watched on. They were quickly dispatched by the twins' coordination and skill, but when they had finished, the leader had drawn his blades and rushed between them, metal flashing in the artificial light. He had put them on the defensive rapidly, and while in time the two might have been able to coordinate better against his skills, whenever they tried to disengage they were cut into by a woman they barely caught sight of before she vanished, wielding some sort of Semblance that allowed her to disappear from sight. The leader, meanwhile, was far better than they had expected, and the rest of the gang they had come for had circled the area, further limiting their options. The fighting had moved away from the entrance, dragging them to the middle of arena and slightly off-center. Melanie was a little worried; she could feel how low her and her sister's Aura levels were, and if this kept up they would be killed or worse. But they couldn't just leave; aside from the relative impossibility, they had a job to do, and their damn pride wouldn't let them leave it unfinished. Melanie spoke in low tones to her sister.

"Maybe we would have been better off asking Neo to come along instead of watching over him." Miltia could only give a shallow nod in agreement. The leader spun his blades in his hands, watching them.

"I expected Junior's bodyguards to put up a better fight. No matter; while we won't kill you, we would like to send a return message of sorts to Junior. If you surrender, we might even let you keep all of your limbs." Before Melanie could even start on her scathing retort to the offer, she was stopped as music began to echo from the archway where they had entered. All attention was shifted towards it as the sound grew louder.

_What in the..?_

**-Cue Los Dos Laredos Acordeones (Because it's a tradition)-**

Bursting from the tunnel a car came barreling through with a blond man riding atop, a red staff in his hands. Not even slowing as it approached, the car barreled through the group behind the leader, sending the men and women either flying away as it began to turn. Halfway through, the blond man flipped off and launched a series of blows at the leader who barely brought his blades up in time to block until a monkey's tail pulled at his leg, throwing off his balance and allowing the now-revealed faunus to send him flying with a small explosion from the point of impact. Meanwhile, the car had come to a complete halt on the other side of the arena after pulling a 180. Tires spinning rapidly in the dirt, the car screamed forward and shot out behind the twins to send the group of gang members flying. The rest of the group, recovering their wits at the shocking entry, began to gather together, keeping the girls and the new arrival between them and the car when it braked suddenly and the passenger door opened up, allowing another figure to roll out. Landing on one knee, the figure brought up a gun and fired three times, scattering the bunched up members with a trio of apparently grenades as the noise from the explosives echoed in the area. The figure, apparently male, let out a loud whoop as he stood, gesturing with the launcher in his right hand.

"And that! That right there is how you make a dramatic entry! Because the hero always arrives at the last mom- NEO TURN OFF THE GODDAMN RADIO!" Melanie and Miltia both blinked several times before realizing who they were looking at. Melanie's jaw dropped as a very audible _click! _rang out from the car, shutting off the oddly festive music.

-**End Music-**

"Opal? What the hell are you doing here? How did you even find us?" The now identified Opal shrugged, approaching them as the monkey faunus—_Sun, that was his name_—came in close, staff resting easily across his shoulders.

"Remember when I asked to connect your scrolls to mine? I got a notice when your Aura levels dropped below half." Melanie blinked as she did belatedly remember linking her scroll to his, reluctantly and only after Miltia did so herself. "After that, I called up Sun-"

Said blond spoke up. "Repeatedly. And he wouldn't stop shouting when I answered." Opal scowled at him.

"'Cause you were bitching about being woken up – why the hell were you asleep, it's not that late. Anyway, I called up Sun, who appropriated a vehicle, and then convinced Neo to drive us here." At the mention of her name said girl popped out from behind Opal with a cheerful wave, none of the group having noticed she had left the car. Melanie blinked again, jaw closing, while Miltia looked thankful. The white twin pointed at the man who had just saved them, face turning into a scowl.

"And why did you come here? You were perfectly safe at the hotel! This wasn't any of your business, you interfering bastard!" Opal scowled right back at her.

"Because while you and I might not get along, I'd rather not see you injured or killed. And despite our mutual distaste for one another, Melanie, I do view Mil as a friend, and I would definitely step in to help a friend." A slow clapping noise alerted the group to the leader having come back to a stand. Standing beside him, the one clapping was a mid-twenty year old woman with a pair of kujangs holstered at her waist. She spoke, her voice mocking.

"Well, isn't this _such_ a touching moment. Your little boyfriend came to save you!" As she spoke, the remaining members began to coalesce around the woman and the leader, expressions angry. "Of course, he's going to have to die. Your little friends, too. We only need you two alive, not the others. Actually, we really only need one of you, and not even in one piece."

* * *

I sighed as Melanie reacted in a not entirely unexpected manner. "**HE'S NOT OUR BOYFRIEND!" **I gave her a deadpan look as I gripped my appropriated launcher tightly.

"Really, that's the part that offends you most? Not the fact that she's planning on killing you or your sister?" As Melanie directed a glare at me, I turned my attention to the remaining members of the gang. "So you're the ones giving the twins a hard time. While I would say I'm impressed" –here my tone darkened– "I'm really not, as it's obvious that you brought several people along with you, meaning that you knew you had no chance in a fair fight against them. That irritates me for more than one reason." The woman laughed mockingly.

"So your idea evening the odds is a beast, a child, and a wannabe hero with an empty grenade launcher?" Sun and Neo scowled at their respective titles while my expression didn't shift. Sun chose this time to answer, twirling Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang.

"Yes, because a woman who hasn't even been fighting has any right to talk." She scowled back at him, and the two began trading insults while I spoke to the twins and Neo in a low voice.

"Anything useful?" Melanie answered rapidly, deciding to not look a gift horse in the mouth and ask why in the hell we were there and our opponents were apparently stupid enough to trade insults with someone instead of kill them.

"Most of the thugs were wiped out by your… interesting entry, and they're only about as strong as a regular member of the crew back home. Their leader is good enough to stand up to me and Miltia, and he wasn't pressed that hard. The bitch trading insults with monkey-boy has been the most annoying: she has a Semblance that causes her to fade from view, and we can't try and find her while keeping the leader off balance." I mentally dubbed the leader Leader and the woman Bitch to keep better track of them in my head. "I hope you have a good idea at this point, because while I hate to admit it, we are in a bit of a bad situation; Miltia and I are both low on Aura." I hummed quietly as the insult war grew louder, everyone in the arena tense for the spark that would re-ignite the conflict.

"Neo, be a dear and finish the rest of the trash, yes?" Neo's only response was a short nod as she slowly shifted her grip on her umbrella. "Sun, don't respond, I know you can hear me. Help the twins with Leader, with your help you should be able to at the very least match him. Leave the bitch to me. First, though, let's put them back into disarray…" I raised my voice to yell at the opposing group, interrupting Sun mid-insult. "Hey, dirtbags! You were wrong about one very important thing!" This time Leader spoke, blades still held in hand. They were a pair of shamshirs, I finally noticed, fitting for the desert environment.

"And what would that be? You have other allies?" I shook my head as I brought the launcher up.

"Nope. I fired three shots." I could see the confusion on their faces at that statement. "This is a four-shot gun." There was a heartbeat of silence as they tried to wrap their heads around that statement. Comprehension slowly began to dawn on a few faces, and it was at that point I fired the last grenade.

_**Boom!**_

After the explosion, I began running forward, feeling the other four running behind me, Neo on my left, Sun and the twins on my right. The smoke began to clear and the remaining members began to stand, Bitch nowhere in sight and Leader having taken the brunt of the blast and been sent to the back of group. I shoulder-checked the first member I ran into, sending him staggering back before I shifted my grip on the launcher and swung it like a golf club. With a resounding impact, the man immediately dropped to the ground, axe clattering as his hands moved to cover his now very bruised groin. Next to me, Neo brought down another with a rapid slash of the stiletto-like blade she had taken from her umbrella, blood flying as she easily broke through his Aura's shield to cut him open. On my other side, Sun battered another with a few quick snaps of his staff before dropping him with a solid punch to the face. Melanie and Miltia worked in tandem, Melanie launching several kicks at the various men and women while Miltia swiped at them in between barrages to take them down. Another came at me, swinging a sword overhead at me which I blocked with the launcher, causing a small cut to form in it. I frowned at him.

"This was a rental, you jackass!" So saying, I kneed him in the groin as well, because groin shots always work on men, then proceeded to bash him over the back of the head with the butt of the launcher. I then threw it in the face of my next foe, a woman with a pipe, and while she was dealing with that I cocked my right arm back. A pulse of Aura triggered the mechanisms within my gauntlets, Caestus, and they enveloped both my hands and lower arms in grey metal. I swung out with a haymaker that was easily blocked by the pipe in the woman's hands, before my left buried itself in her solar plexus. She stumbled back, and I performed a sweeping kick to knock her legs out from under her before stomping down on her face. I winced as blood erupted from her nose, her eyes glazed over as I had put some Aura in that kick. Not enough to kill her, mind you, but…

_That's going to leave a mark. I almost feel bad… Almost. Shit-!_

Instincts damn near yelling at me I rolled forward and spun around to see Bitch fading into view, daggers poised to swing at me. She was scowling quite darkly, but quickly faded back out of my sight, not even a shimmer in the air. That's an impressive Semblance, but…

I came to a stand, arms up in a standard boxing stance as I glanced around. Sun, Miltia, and Melanie were fighting Leader, Sun's shotgun shells being deflected as Leader whirled and spun his blades—lots of circular motion there. Miltia and Melanie were circling and taking out any mook that got too close to "their" designated area. Neo… was damn near dancing between the main group left of mooks, umbrella-blade sheathed as she weaved and kicked and smashed with her tool, easily bringing them down one-by-one. Before I could muse anymore, my instincts blared at me again as I _felt_ an unfamiliar presence telegraph _hostility-anger-bloodthirst_ and I brought Caestus to block the pair of blades, one on each arm as Bitch came into view again, allowing me to finally get a good luck at her.

She looked fairly similar to that one girl from RWBY, the hell was her name… She had a lankier build, however, and was dressed in black and browns, with sandy blonde hair. Her blue eyes were narrowed in anger as she kept pressure on her blades, preventing me from easily moving my arms while keeping them back.

"I'm a little irritated that you keep managing to avoid me, but you can't keep getting lucky, wannabe." I gave her a grim smile.

"I just need to be lucky enough to keep you away until someone else finishes their fight." It was true, and her darkening expression said she knew it as well. While Leader could possibly hold off the twins and Sun for quite some time, Neo was tearing their minions a new one, and whenever she finally got bored of that and ended it Bitch would be against me and Neo. Well, actually, probably just Neo, as I'm struggling to keep her blades from pressing my arms down. She had a deceptive amount of… _fuck, she's augmenting herself with Aura! No wonder I'm having issues holding her back!_

Sadly, that realization came at the exact moment her Aura spiked, which let me figure it out. Her Aura spiked for a reason, however, and she suddenly exerted even more pressure and did bring my arms down a little. Enough, anyway, for her to suddenly whip back up and attempt to slash me. She had cut through my shirt and drawn some blood before my reflexes kicked and I jumped back, leaving two gashes in my shirt and a pair of shallow slash wounds. I hissed under my breath as I felt my Aura react to the damage and it began to slowly heal. _Damn, can't drop my guard at all… Wait…_

A lightbulb practically went off in my head. _I can feel her, and her Aura spiking! I'm an idiot, I can just track her whenever she kicks in her Semblance!_ As that occurred to me, she disappeared again, but this time I was ready. I reached out with that 'sixth sense' that had been there ever since Qrow taught me and… _There!_

**-Cue "Spiral" by Jeff Williams-**

I charged forward and threw a quick right jab, wisps of orange floating off my arms to signify my use of Aura. The clash of metal upon metal was matched only by a surprised exclamation from Bitch as she came back into view, daggers up to block my fist. She rapidly backpedaled away as I threw a left uppercut, before quick-stepping forward and launching a series of blows that she hastily dodged or barely deflected. I ended my flurry with a strong kick from my right leg that she quickly jumped away from, putting distance back between us as I brought my leg back down, a panicked look in her eye. I chuckled as I resumed my stance, staring her directly in her eyes as the panic faded to be replaced with anger and grim determination.

"I can find you. Let's try this again, yeah?" Lunging forward, I threw another few punches that she actually blocked or deflected, keeping her balance and regaining her stride. The only reason I had pushed her back before, probably, was due to the panic from someone seeing through her Semblance. We traded blows, sharp jabs and uppercuts from me, making use of Caestus to prevent any harm from her daggers swinging back in kind or deflecting by striking the sides of my arms. Neither of us were getting through to the other, leaving us stalemated. Suddenly, however, she disengaged after a quick stab to the throat that I blocked as she jumped away, her left hand darting to her hip. It came back up with not her dagger, which was sheathed, but-

_Shit shit shit- turtle!_

I brought my arms up to cover my face as I quickly crouched. The staccatoed sound belonging to small automatic guns rang out, and I was peppered by bullets as I brought my Aura to block my legs, figuring my torso and arms would be fine with Caestus blocking me. I thought wrong, though.

**-Cue "Ouch" by Jeff Williams-**

"Gur-gah!" I cried out as somehow, due to raw bad luck I suppose, a bullet slipped between my gauntlets and pierced my stomach, coming cleanly out the other side. I began to breathe heavily as I urged my Aura to saturate the wound and heal it rapidly, but the approaching presence told me that I was in trouble. I looked up as Caestus fell to my side to see Bitch approaching, daggers in hand with a sadistic smile on her face.

"Hah! All that trouble, and all I had to do was pull a gun to drop you? I should've done that in the first place!" she gloated, looking down at me as she sashayed forward, twirling her daggers idly. I hissed as I felt my Aura working overtime, but dammit, it wasn't fast enough. At the same time, I couldn't move until the wound was mostly healed, who knows how much worse that could make it. As she moved closer, I considered my options.

_Shit, guess I'm going to need to risk it. like I'm going to let her kill me! Fuck that!_

She got within easy range to hit me, and she drew back one of her daggers to stab me. I tensed, ready to move, before suddenly a white blur filled my peripheral vision. I blinked as Melanie let out a battle cry as she launched a series of kicks at Bitch, who immediately deflected and began backstepping. Melanie launched a final kick before spinning to her left as Miltia came from her right, swinging her claws down at Bitch and shredding part of her clothes. Miltia swiped again, causing Bitch to backstep once more only for Melanie to dart past her sister and launch another assault of kicks, keeping Bitch off-balance. I cast my eyes back at their original battle, and saw Neo dancing around Leader's blows while Sun blocked with his staff, keeping him occupied temporarily. I finally felt my Aura recede from my wound, which while the area still hurt like hell, meant I could move safely again. I narrowed my eyes at Bitch, who had darted out of range again as the twins moved back to flank me from either side. I rose to my feet, arms hanging at my sides as I addressed them.

"Thanks. That was almost very nasty." I heard Sun let out a war cry and I gestured with my head back in that direction as Bitch seethed. "Go back to the other two; I got this." I immediately felt Melanie moving back towards the battle, but Miltia hesitated.

"Sure?" I nodded, bringing my right hand to dig into my pocket.

"I got this, Miltia. she caught me off-guard with her cheap trick is all." She hesitated still, Melanie's voice ringing out as she rejoined the other two, before she seemed to come to a decision.

"Be careful, Opal." With that, she sped off to fight, leaving me staring down Bitch, who snorted.

"Luck again. Luck won't save you any more, though— those four will be too occupied to help you again. Once I kill you, I can kill them. Forget sending a message anymore; I'm tired of this bullshit." I retracted my left gauntlet as my right hand came out of my pocket, closed around an orb-ish object.

"You know, I'd be worried, except that straight up, we're roughly even. You're not that good a fighter, really, relying on cheap tricks like your Semblance, that gun, even using your Aura so blatantly to keep up." She scowled at me.

"Just keep talking; I'll be nice enough to even refrain from putting something insulting on your grave." I shook my head at her.

"See, thing is, you used all those, but I'm still standing. And guess what?" My left hand darted to my right before quickly withdrawing, something small held in my fingers. "I still have _my _tricks. Catch." So saying, I threw the object in my right hand at her, and it rolled to a stop at her feet. She blinked at it in confusion, before her eyes widened.

"Oh fu-" The grenade exploded at her feet, sending her flying back. I charged forward, Caestus enveloping my left hand once more as I darted through the smoke to find Bitch, clothes dirty and somewhat tattered now, stumbling back to her feet. A pulse of my Aura guided Caestus to release another trick, a pair of punch-dagger blades sprouting from the outer part of my weapon. I jabbed at her, which she hastily blocked, but I was tired of all of this; she was being brought down _now._ I focused and my Aura enveloped me, its light orange hue engulfing me as I launched a barrage of attacks, swiping and jabbing at her with enhanced speed. She was panicking now, blocking and deflecting as best she could but still taking numerous blows as I cut loose with everything I had at her. Finally I dropped low and, repeating an earlier move against one of her comrades, swept her legs from her, dropping her to the ground in turn. Not giving her any time to react, I lunged forward and brought down a hammer fist on her face as my Aura flared around my arms, knocking her out and giving her a mild concussion at best. Panting, I staggered back to my feet, before kicking her in the side. Her limp body gave no response, proving to me she was truly out cold. Sighing, I let my arms droop as my Aura receded.

"Fuuuuck… I'm tired." My eyes widened as I remembered there was another fight. I spun around and saw that while Sun and the twins were pressuring him, he was encased in his own aura, a royal purple color. Neo was nowhere to be found from sight alone, but she couldn't be far. My eyes darted down to my previous opponent, noticing something at her right hip.

_That'll do…_

My right hand retracted its blade and began to collapse back to its casual form as I snatched up the item of my interest. I started running towards the other fight as Sun took up the role of playing distraction, blocking several heavy blade blows from his opponent.

"Sun, move!" At hearing my voice, Sun blocked one final blow before rolling to the side suddenly, causing Leader to overextend on his swing. I took immediate advantage by slashing with Caestus, causing him to recoil back as my body spun, bringing my right hand, gripping the SMG I took from Bitch, to point at him. His eyes widened at it, time seeming to slow for us as I brought the weapon to bear.

"Down you go!" I held down the trigger, emptying the magazine at near-point blank range. With no other options, he flared his Aura to exorbitant heights, the bullets pinging off the purple barrier sprouting a short distance from his skin. As the gun clicked empty I _felt_ two instances of Sun approaching while a third was farther away, which I took as my cue to drop to the ground as two golden clones of the monkey faunus dashed past me and exploded in Leader's face, staggering him even more despite his last-resort barrier. Before he could recover, he suddenly stilled as a thin blade sprouted from his chest, right at his heart. He gasped out as his head turned to look behind him, seeing nothing until reality _shattered_, revealing a psychotically grinning Neo holding the blade. Another last gasp was given as he collapsed to the ground, Neo easily slipping the blade out of his body as he fell. Panting, I _felt_ around us, confirming that the only ones still standing were our dysfunctional group before collapsing to the ground with a massive sigh.

"Fuuuuccckkk… Why did I think that this would be easy?" Sun, breathing heavily, collapsed next to me, his weapon already put away.

"Hell.. if I know. All… your fault." I raised my left hand from where I was laying to flip him off, only to let out a pained grunt as Neo plopped onto my stomach. "Whyyyy…" Neo just gave me a childish smile. Melanie and Miltia stumbled over, leaning on each other, to join us, sitting down instead of flopping to lay upon the ground like Sun and I had. Melanie spoke up.

"Ummm… thanks and all that, I guess." I shifted my gaze to see her looking away from me, Miltia assessing my condition while Neo daintily cleaned her blade of blood, as if she _hadn't_ just used it to kill someone. "If you three hadn't shown up, we probably wouldn't have gotten out of this." I gave her a lazy wave of my hand.

"Mah, you saved my ass there, so we'll call it even." I thought about it for a moment. "Actually, if you really want to make it up to me, I have a favor to ask." Her head snapped around, scowl back in place, and I hurriedly continued before she spoke. "Nothing like that! Just a bit of payback is all. I'll tell you about it on the way back." I shifted my gaze over to Sun at her hesitant nod to the idea of at least hearing me out. "You good, bro?" Sun was on his back, looking up at the sky. Somewhere during the confusion, the spotlight had been turned back to the entrance, so we could see the shattered moon. He turned his head to look at me.

"Yeah, I got off lucky, only a few scratches. I saw you get shot though, that's why the twins came to help. I rushed him with everything I had and Neo popped up to help while they went over to bail your ass out." I gestured at my now healed stomach in response.

"Aura took care of that nicely. I'm drained, though. I'm down to…" I paused, before fishing around in my pocket for my scroll, which I opened up and tapped a few times. I raised an eyebrow. "20% of my reserves. Huh. Thought I had less than that, what with everything I did." Sun blinked, as did everyone else, Neo's eyes shifting color when she blinked.

Miltia spoke this time. "So much?" I tilted my head to gaze at her again, shrugging as well as I could from my position.

"Yeah, Qrow kept saying I had some massive reserves for my age and circumstances. Guess this proves it." Neo 'spoke' up this time, though her words were evidently only for me.

*I saw that last trick of yours, and your fight. Keeping from getting injured and healing would have drained most people; that you had enough to outright flood your Aura for that final assault is unusual for anyone not a fully qualified Hunter.* I gave no reaction to that, as this was all communicated by her Semblance; she made no movement to acknowledge me, still cleaning her blade. I made a mental note to talk to her later about this. I shifted my head again, blinking as I realized something.

"Oh, hey…" Everyone shifted their attention, which was previously wandering after my last comment, back to me. "The car's still good; we can get back to the hotel with it instead of walking all that way." Sun immediately sat up, hands up in a warding gesture.

"Not when that psycho is driving, hell no!" Neo gave him an innocent look, which had absolutely no effect. "Bad enough you convinced me to ride on top; she almost crashed like twenty times!" I just gave him an exasperated look, while the twins looked rather bemused.

"Oh, don't say that. It was closer to ten." Sun blinked, before scowling at me.

"That's not the point and you know it!" As he bickered with me and Neo, the twins just watching, I felt my body loosen up, the situation finally past.

_I am not playing hero again… Oh, who am I kidding? As much as Fate is fucking with me, I'll be playing hero in less than a week._

**AN: And cut! Hope you all enjoyed! I had this idea in my head for a group fight, so I finally wrote it out. Next chapter will have Orion's return to Vale, which will be exciting in a way. A couple of notes:**

**Leader: Picture him at Yang's or Pyrrha's level: really skilled, but still not at the level of a Huntsman, or even Team CFVY canonically. He's just a throwaway, as is Bitch, so we won't see him again. As you saw, it took a team of Melanie, Miltia, and Sun to keep him on even footing. My interference with a dirty trick and Neo's backstab were just to end it. I viewed him as respectful, regardless of how he personally felt about a situation. A true professional.**

**Bitch: Name says it all. I based her off of a concept of "trained until figured out Semblance, let skills wane and became overly reliant." She had a number of cheap tricks at her disposal, but Orion's sensory skill canceled out her Semblance, leaving her with her dull daggerwork and her SMGs, of which she only pulled one. In terms of raw combat ability, no tricks, I'd say she's a step or two above Jaune, but not that high up, as the twins easily pressured her when they were able to dedicate solely to her. Also, if you don't know what a kujang is, go look it up, as I'm far too lazy to tell you.**

**Aura shielding: So, this is essentially how it works. People in the world of RWBY, if they have their Aura unlocked, will have it shield them from attacks they know are coming out of instinct. Generations of souls doing that and passing the knowledge down tends to do that. However, if they can't see it coming, it will do some damage. Enough force can also break through it (seen with Weiss getting slammed by the giant in her trailer), but if properly focused, you can block more, as we saw with Leader withstanding both my emptying a mag at him and Sun's boom-clones. Orion, being from a different dimension, does not have that instinct to auto-guard (yet), and so must actively channel the Aura to various parts of his body to shield. If he doesn't, well, you saw. **

**Caestus: Yep, Orion's gauntlets actually get named in-story! He'll talk more about them next chapter. They have one other trick at his disposal, which we'll see next time there's a big fight. At this point, I'm just going to refer to them as Caestus, similar to how Yang's are named Ember Celica, despite being a pair of weapons. Sorry to be contradictory to my previous note last chapter, but I find it easier this way. By the by, for those too lazy to look, "caestus" can be roughly translated to "striker" from Latin.**

**Next chapter, Orion and the twins return to Vale, reporting back to their respective bosses and reconnecting with their friends/associates. Orion finally gets a day to just relax; hopefully nothing crazy will interrupt him. Again.**

**So story idea again, for those who want to take a shot. A crossover fic for you:**

**Teams RWBY and JNPR, a pair of four man squads with high success rates in the field. All eight of them orphans, all of them tightly knit with one another, and all of them members of Balamb's SeeD force. What do they do when their somewhat peaceful days begin to end as the Sorceress's schemes begin to come into the world? A FF VIII – RWBY crossover.**

**So yeah, anyone want to give that fic a shot? I'd be interested to see how that goes. They have gunblades already, so decent starting point. Could easily substitute magic and GFs for Dust if done properly. Feel free to use your own summary, of course, that's just my summary of the idea.**

**One final note. I would appreciate if someone came up with an idea for a cover for this thing. Because that blank spot is a little irritating to look at. So... yeah, please and thank you?**

**So read! Review! And be a big damn hero for someone out there!**


	18. Chapter 18

**RRC: My apologies: my muse ran away, and I had to go capture it again. *shakes opaque glass jar* hopefully, it shouldn't run away again. Now then, I appreciate your words, my readers!**

** Raidentensho: *shrug* Possibly because One Piece is one of my top three anime, and I'm trying to avoid an active-use Semblance that we normally see? We'll see about the epicness, I try.**

** edus: Opal, I suppose you mean. And yeah, while he did end up winning despite getting shot (make no mistake, that did hurt, and still does), that opponent was weak as hell. His future opponents will be far tougher, though his injuries won't be too severe, as is the way of RWBY.**

** Time Locked Maniac: New reader! *gives cookie* While I appreciate your words greatly, I wouldn't call this a work of art. It's nowhere near the level of giants such as Kenchi618, Third Fang, lupine horror, or xT-Zealot. I write to the best of my ability, with the ideas at my disposal, and Veil helps fix up the grammatical side as he is far more gifted. In time perhaps it'll reach that level, but we'll see what's in store, yes?**

** OBSERVER01: Yay yet another new reader! *gives another cookie* I do have plans for two separate polearms that he'll have at his disposal, one being mentioned by name in this chapter. That one is finalized, but the second is still a work in progress in my head for exactly what I want to do with it. He will eventually make a taser of some sort in one part of his arsenal, mainly because it **_**is**_ **such an effective non-lethal option.**

** VarKaim: *gives another cookie* I'm glad you enjoy! Here's more.**

**That should be all. Once again, much thanks for your appreciation, hopefully I'll get more readers as time passes. Let's see the end result of Orion's little trip, yes? Onwards!**

**A Little Rest and Recuperation**

"Junior! Buddy!" At my words, the massive bear-man behind the bar looked up to see the entrance of the twins and me to The Bear's Den. Last night's events were quickly summed up with me looting the kujangs off Bitch, because hey free loot, and then Neo driving us all back to the hotel (with much screaming coming from Sun and surprisingly the twins; Sun's was higher pitched, though) where Sun bade us farewell. Neo wandered off to her room, the twins collapsed into one bed in theirs, and I, after depositing the kujangs in the 'appropriated weapons' pile, collapsed into mine. The next day I left with the sisters, Neo walking with us to the airdock before disappearing off to I don't want to know where in Vacuo. The airship ride was quiet, aside from a short discussion of the favor I wished to ask of them when we arrived. We left fairly early, so managed to arrive before noon. We immediately headed to the Den, as I wanted my damn paycheck and the girls wanted to go home. Hence, now, with Junior easily hopping over the bar to come and greet us.

"Malachites. Opal. I assume it went well then?" As we approached each other, I carefully hid my right arm from view and activated Caestus.

"Overall, yes, delivery successful. One little thing though…" My tone dropped as Junior got close, confusion etched on his expression, before he let out a pained wheeze as I whipped my gauntlet-encased arm forward to sock him in the solar plexus. He doubled over, gasping, as I withdrew my arm and let my control over my face fade, a scowl taking over. "That's for not telling me about their mission, and overall getting me shot!" My tone began to rise and I was shouting by the time I ended. He looked up, pain across his face as he continued to gasp.

"You… got involved?" he wheezed out, still clutching his stomach. I let Caestus retract again, crossing my arms across my chest while Melanie and Miltia passed by both of us, heading to their room no doubt.

"You're lucky I did. They walked into an ambush and would probably have been hospitalized if I hadn't shown up with Neo and a local to help out. As it is, it still wasn't an easy fight by any means, and the girls' clothes got a bit cut up. I did as well, though my Aura has repaired most of it." While the majority of the wound closed in combat, so I could move freely, it still hurt like hell. Even after a night's rest to replenish my reserves and heal even more, if I moved my arms too much the areas where the cuts were would sting like shit. I'm fairly sure that anyone touching my gut would cause me to cringe as well. Junior finally began to catch his breath as I moved past him, heading towards the bar.

"We meant to keep you out of it; it wasn't any of your business, Opal." I snorted as I took a seat at the bar, waiting for him to catch up and go to the other side before replying.

"I do consider Mil a friend, Junior, and those assholes were scumbags. Especially the one I ended up fighting. You underestimated their leader, by the way, it took a team effort by all of us to bring him down." Junior swore under his breath in a language I didn't recognize. I raised an eyebrow as what I assumed was profanity became even more convoluted while he was making my drink. He finally stopped after finishing the drink and passing it to me. I took a small sip as he leaned against the counter. _Hmm, sweet._

"Of course it did… I'll have to work with my sources out in Vacuo personally, apparently, if they screwed up this bad." I merely shrugged, sipping my drink. "I'm guessing that the poor information is why Miltia and especially Melanie didn't attack you when you socked me?" I nodded.

"That, and the fact that I bailed them out, earned me a freebie. I'm fairly sure if I do it again Melanie at least will attempt to tear my head off." Junior just chuckled.

"I'm fairly sure that she won't kill you, now that she's calmed down over time. She'll hurt you though, and I know the rest of my boys will step in, as will I, if you pull that shit again." He was giving me an evil eye which I shrugged off.

"I live with one of the scariest Huntsmen in the service, you actually think you scare me, Junior? Regardless, I have no intention of doing so again, I was merely expressing my displeasure at the situation." Junior opened his mouth, paused, thought a moment, and then slumped.

"What's the world coming to when your average worker doesn't fear his local crime boss?" I snorted as I watched him begin to mix his own drink, evidently fed up with the situation.

"I don't exactly count as 'average', Junior. Considering I associate with pretty much anyone who isn't actively trying to kill me, I'm a bit abnormal. I'm fairly sure anyone else would be properly intimidated." He looked up at me, eyebrow raised. "Melanie wasn't actively trying to kill me. She works for an info broker, if she really wanted to kill me she would've gotten where I lived from you and then slit my throat in my sleep." He blinked at that.

"You're… kind of pessimistic aren't you? Do you plan out ways people can kill you in your spare time or something?" I cocked my head at him.

"A fair amount of the population is combat trained. An even larger amount openly carry various weaponry. Man, and faunus, kind is actively being hunted by soulless monsters hellbent on genocide. Anyone who isn't aware of the possibility of their own death and doesn't set up a few precautions is either stupid, suicidal, or both." Junior considered that as he put the finishing touches on his drink before sighing.

"You know, when you spell it out like that… That's rather depressing to contemplate." I shrugged, inclining my glass towards him as did the same towards me.

"That's why we don't normally think about it. We take some common sense safety precautions, and then we all make the best of our lives, whatever cards we may be dealt." We both drank deeply from our glasses, and switched the conversation to what Junior had been up to without his enforcers.

* * *

"I'm home!" I called out loudly as I opened the door. Almost immediately I braced myself as a red blur tackled me with a tight hug, wincing slightly in pain.

"Orion!" Squeezing even tighter and earning yet another wince, Ruby looked up at me. "You're back!" Chuckling, I mussed her hair as Yang popped out of her room, Qrow merely looking up from where he sat reading at the kitchen table.

"Yeah, I'm back. I'd appreciate it if you let me go though, Ruby, I'm a little sore from a bullet wound." She paled and immediately let go, apologizing profusely. I just chuckled again, waving a hand at her as I walked over and sat across from Qrow, who raised an eyebrow.

"Bullet wound? I thought this was just a book delivery." I shrugged as Yang and Ruby sat on either side of us, both looking very curious and a little worried.

"Yeah, a book delivery to Outer Vacuo. You know, the land of gang warfare?" Qrow nodded while Ruby and Yang listened closely. "Some assholes tried to mug us. The twins dealt with them easily enough, but one guy got off a lucky shot. They weren't amused, as my well-being was tied to their paycheck, and damn near sent him to the morgue. I'm mostly fine, really, my Aura's healed the worst of it and it happened yesterday, just stings when pressure is put on it for now." While talking I glanced at Qrow and subtly shook my head, indicating that wasn't what really happened, but a glance to each of the sisters indicated why I was changing the story. A slight nod indicated that he knew, and I figured we'd talk about it later. Yang just huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, lilac eyes briefly flickering red.

"Lucky I wasn't there; I would've done a lot worse." I just raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to turn her red gaze upon me. "What? You're my friend, and I'm allowed to be protective of my friends." I snorted.

"That… is incredibly cheesy. Have you been reading Ruby's fantasy stories again?" She looked a bit sheepish, her eyes fading back to lilac. "It all turned out fine, alright? I'm not at your level, but I can hold my own against a few thugs down on their luck. So no, you don't get to punch Junior in the face, and yes, I can see it all over your face. The twins were doing their best, so no punching them either." She pouted, and Ruby took that time to rush around the table to be in front of me, eyes sparkling.

"Can I see your weapons now? You were too busy before to show me!" I pretended to think about it, only to get hit full blast by her chibi-pout technique. I raised my hands in surrender.

"Ok, ok, just turn off the cuteness! God, why is that not your weapon?" Ruby just grinned cheekily at me even as she reverted back to normal form. I chuckled, triggering my gauntlets to form over my hands, allowing her to look it over.

"You made Caestus first? Why not Venator or Oppugnator?" I shrugged carefully, waiting for to move away for a moment before letting the blades trigger for her to look over.

"Venator is still fairly theoretical, remember? I still have to look into a few more things before I can make it. As for Oppugnator, that would've taken longer to make than Caestus, and I'd have to specifically train with it before it'd be any good in a fight." Ruby considered that for a moment.

"Meanwhile, you had most of the basic design for Caestus due to Yang's own Ember Celica, aside from switching out the shotgun part." She looked over the blades, poking and prodding at Caestus as if seeing if it would respond. "Still don't know why you would do that, guns are cool." I retracted the blades, causing her to pout before heading back to her chair as I let the rest of Caestus collapse.

"Because that recoil would be hell on my arms, the only reason your sister can use them is because of her Semblance. And before you say it, you know there's a difference between a gun on a stick and a gun on your arms." She glared at me for calling her precious Crescent Rose a stick. I raised a hand. "Peace, peace! I don't feel like fighting you over weapons Ruby. Don't I owe you a batch of cookies?" She instantly brightened, all offense at her baby forgotten at the prospect of sugary treats. I stood, moving away from the table. "Come on then, let's see what we have at our disposal. Feel like chipping in, Yang?" The blonde sister stood as well, eager to chip in to what promised to be a good time baking together.

* * *

"Quite the trip." Qrow and I were relaxing on chairs in the backyard, Ruby in a content sugar haze watching TV on the couch with Zwei cuddled up next to her, while Yang was in her room listening to the Achieve Men on her headphones. Qrow and I kept our voices low so as to not alert Ruby, though we weren't too worried. When Ruby consumes enough sugar to skip being hyper to just being in a haze, she is rather out of tune with the world. "I suspect Junior will be paying you more for your part?"

"Next time I swing by, he said. He had the original payment already, but bailing out his enforcers and getting involved in what was essentially his business, not to mention all of the complications caused by a lack of information from an info broker of all things, warranted a bit of a bonus. So, there's incentive to swing by there again, aside from seeing Miltia again. And the free drinks." Qrow nodded, taking a small drink from his water cup.

"Quite. I'd hate for him to skimp out on you. As for this Neo… what can you tell me about her? Sounds like you've met her a few times, which is odd for someone in your situation." I grimaced at the mild rebuke in his tone, probably stemming from not actually telling him about her in the first place.

"Neo… is odd. She is mentally unbalanced at least a little, I can tell you that much. I could easily classify her as a sociopath, but I hesitate to do so without more knowledge on her. She is fairly powerful in her own right, her illusionary Semblance giving her a host of tricks she can use. And even without that, in a straight up fight…" I sighed deeply, deciding not to hold back anything. "In a straight fight, she'd probably be able to beat Yang into the ground. She certainly has more Aura than Yang, and from what I've seen she has plenty of skill in physical combat." Qrow clasped his hands together at this knowledge.

"Someone like that is roaming around… Junior and his enforcers having some decent skill is one thing, they don't use it beyond defending themselves normally, hence why most Huntsmen overlook them, despite their… shady background." I nodded at that.

"I figured it was something like that. The fact that he supplies certain bits of information to Huntsmen for a reduced price certainly helps, I suppose?" Qrow gave a grim chuckle at that.

"It certainly doesn't hurt. However, this Neo is an unknown, and she seems perfectly willing to kill anyone if she feels like it. I'd suggest hunting her down, but we have no way of doing so, if her Semblance is as powerful as you suggest. I'm surprised that you're not worried about her with your paranoia." I shrugged at that, acknowledging his point.

"I am mildly terrified of her yes, but I seem to interest her in a positive manner. While that in itself is worrying, it's better than pissing her off. She's not a threat to me per se, but there's little I, or anyone, can do to control her. It's best to let sleeping dogs lie in this case, Qrow." The tall man sighed at this.

"Sadly, I am forced to agree. I'll see if there's anything else I can learn about her, but I doubt I'll be able to do so. Speaking of Semblances…" I perked up, curious. "I think that your sensory ability is linked to your Semblance, at least partially." I tilted my head at him.

"While that's probably true, I'm curious as to how you think that? Couldn't it just be some oddity of having an Earth soul compared to a Remnant one?" He shrugged, posture in his chair shifting so as to sit up straighter.

"Aside from the fact that Semblances are highly personalized skills in the first place, unique to each soul?" I smiled sheepishly at that. "Semblances do more than give us some sort of special power. They also affect each of us passively, depending on what they are. For example, Yang's makes her far more resistant to blunt trauma, and increases her physical strength beyond what one would expect looking at her. Ruby's Semblance increases her metabolism and actually accelerates the speed she thinks at." I blinked at that, shocked.

"Wait seriously? So her being a child prodigy is due to her Semblance?" Qrow shook his head.

"Only partially. While she does think faster than your average human, or faunus, she is still highly intelligent in her own right. She is limited due to her lack of knowledge and experience, but in time she will be an extremely gifted woman mentally." I slowly nodded.

"Right, so that passive thing… That would extend to my own as well, if we take all souls to be roughly equal? So me being able to sense Auras, and therefore both people's emotions and location, is just a side-effect of my actual Semblance?" Qrow nodded.

"Yes. I am curious as to what the full effect version is of your Semblance, as the sensory ability is rather powerful on its own. You mentioned you used it in your battle?" I glanced inside, before focusing. Yang was still in her room, and Ruby was still on the couch, trapped by mind-numbing cartoons. I turned my attention back to Qrow.

"Yeah. She used her Semblance to disappear from view. She also fairly skilled at keeping silent as well. While that would be enough to deal with most people, and I have little doubt she also had precautions against the Faunus sense of smell, she couldn't conceal her Aura, so I was able to keep track of her. That close, and with adrenaline pumping as well, I could also feel when she infused Aura into her blows. It was incredibly useful. Actually, because of that, I can sense somewhat better; I could feel the three of you from farther away than before when I came home." Qrow nodded.

"That makes sense. The very first variation of it, when you first unlocked it, was just its basic level. As more time passes, and you use it more or develop more Aura or get closer to your Semblance, it will become stronger and stronger. Similar to how Ruby no longer has tunnel vision when she activates hers, or how Yang can activate hers when she berserks for a massive temporary boost." I thought about that.

"Makes sense. So a sensory type Semblance? That seems… out of place, compared to most that I know of." Qrow shifted in his chair, his expression becoming one of contemplation.

"True, it is an oddity, but then so are you." I shrugged, unable to deny that. "We'll see if it develops into something more."

* * *

Reset the alarm on my scroll, send a message to Tukson letting him know I'm back in town and will be in to work tomorrow. Minor things really to do before I go to bed. As I pulled up a mind–numbing game to play (Remnant's variation of Bejeweled) to lull myself to sleep for the next half hour, a knock sounded on my door. _Yang._ I considered getting up, then mentally chose not to and raised my voice.

"Come in." She did so, closing the door behind her and walking over to me. "What's up Yang? You disappeared after my little story and after dinner." She plopped down on the bed next to me, causing it to shift a bit. I didn't look up, intent on my little game.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just…" As she trailed off, I felt something shift in her. Before I could react, she socked me in the shoulder, causing me to hiss in pain as my slash wound acted up. I grabbed where she hit and grimaced at her, game forgotten.

"Damnit Yang, that fucking hurt! What the hell?" The blonde bombshell crossed her arms over her chest, frowning at me, eyes flickering to red.

"I knew it. You lied to me." I cursed under my breath. As much as Yang hated schoolwork, she was far from unintelligent. She was clever when necessary, and very observant. I rubbed my shoulder, calling up my Aura to prevent bruising and to further heal the old wounds. A light orange glow bathed my upper torso.

"Tch. What gave it away?" Yang just gave me a deadpan stare.

"Your shirt was cut under your jacket. You weren't really careful with moving, though I don't think Ruby noticed." Right, I had yet to change clothes. "Plus, you and I did do some _soul-searching._" I resisted the urge to groan. "I like to think I know you fairly well after that." I didn't bother holding back my sigh as my aura died down, the pain now faded away. Her frown morphed to an expression of concern. "Are you actually alright?"

"I'm fine Yang." Her face didn't change as gestured at my previously glowing shoulders. "Ok, mostly. I didn't lie when I said I healed most of the damage." Yang scooted back on the bed to lean against the wall. I shut down my scroll and scooted back to join her.

"What actually happened Orion? You're not one to seek out trouble." I sighed.

"The twins had a second objective. They were to track down and deliver a very… _pointed_ message to a certain group of people. They had bad intel though, and were getting hammered." I raised my hand as she opened her mouth, forestalling her question. "My scroll was connected to theirs, keeping track of our Auras, just in case something went bad while we were there. I was alerted when theirs dropped below 50%. With the help of a friend I made while out there, I picked up a car and interfered with some weaponry appropriated from some assholes who did attack us earlier. The fight devolved into a massive brawl. I ended up fighting a woman with dual daggers and smgs. She wasn't that good of a fighter, the only reason she was able to hurt the twins was her Semblance gave her invisibility." Yang nodded her head at that. "I'm still learning though, so she got a few lucky blows early on until I started paying attention to my senses." Yang tilted her head.

"Senses?" I paused, then ran through every conversation we had had. Nope, I guess I hadn't. Whoops.

"I can sense Aura. People, animals, plants, though I generally tune that last bit out. It's how I know where you guys are in the house all the time, as well as how I can be aware at work while reading. To a certain point, because it is the manifestation of your soul, I can sense emotions too." Yang blinked. Blinked again at me. Then raised her hand and pointed at me.

"Since when have you been able to do that?!" I merely shrugged at her disbelief.

"Since Qrow taught me how to infuse Aura in weapons and I somehow messed up. We figure it might just be an extension of my Semblance whenever I figure that out though." Yang slowly nodded, processing that information. "Anyway, when I started to pay attention I could track her. After I turned the tables and started pressing her, she disengaged briefly and pulled a gun on me. Stopped as much of it as I could, but a lucky bullet slipped past my guard, hence my bullet wound." The blond nodded again, remembering that to be the reason I had Ruby let go so quickly from her hug. "The twins stepped in to buy me time to recover, and then I beat her ass into the pavement before she had time to pull her second gun. Finished off the leader, and that was that." She slowly nodded.

"So essentially you decided to be a hero for a chick who doesn't even like you?" I scowled at her.

"While Melanie and I have a mutual dislike for each other, I am friends with Miltia. And I'd rather not see Melanie die, despite my dislike. Besides, it's not like the daggers were that bad." I gestured over at my pack, which I had kept after everything and tossed into a corner. "Not really that efficient, but I kept them anyway." Yang just gave me a deadpan stare.

"You kept the daggers that cut you." I shrugged.

"War trophies, and if I have them she can't use them." Yang sighed at that, before suddenly hugging me. Caught off guard, I barely managed to keep myself upright from the sudden force.

"… Be more careful. Ruby would be devastated if something happened to you." She hesitated for a moment, not looking at me, before speaking again. "I would, too." I sighed, before hugging her back, holding her close.

"I'll try. Not like I look for trouble, though. I just have bipolar luck." A snort came from the blonde girl before she released me and sat back, giggling. "It's true! This kind of crap happens to me all the time ever since Ruby first found me! Which in itself was horrible!" Yang just giggled.

"Then why is it bipolar instead of just horrible?" I shrugged at that.

"Met you guys, haven't I? Met a lot of people. People I can remember." Yang's giggling ceased abruptly at that sober reminder.

"Still can't remember any of your past life, can you?" I slowly shook my head.

"Not any personal details, though. Not entirely sure I want to, either?" The blond tilted her head as she looked at me curiously.

"You don't? Why not?" I shrugged again.

"I've thought about it… came to the decision that in all likelihood I'm better off not remembering." Yang just gave me a blank stare. "Look, it's late, and it'll take a while to explain. You have school and I have work tomorrow, you need to head off to bed." Yang grumbled good-naturedly but did scoot off my bed. She started walking towards the door before I spoke up again, stopping her.

"I can kind of understand Ruby being devastated, being as socially awkward as she is, but why would you be, Yang?" Her hand rested on the doorknob but didn't turn it. Nor did she turn back to look at me while she answered.

"Because despite how I act and all the people I'm friends with at Signal… You're my closest friend right now. It hasn't really been that long, I know, but that little adventure we had together did a lot. I trust you more than anyone outside of my family." She seemed to be weighing something in her head, before finally speaking again. "Night, Orion." With that she left, shutting the door quietly behind her.

* * *

"So how was your trip?" These were the first words spoken to me by my boss when I entered. He didn't even look up from his book when the bell jingled. I blinked.

"Eventful. How'd you know it was me?" He shrugged, rummaging in his pocket.

"Lucky guess. Here." He held out my pay, which I took from him and stored away in one of my many pockets for safe-keeping. "Eventful? How so?" I shrugged, wandering around to take my usual position sitting behind the counter as he got up and walked to be on the other side.

"A few gangs made attempts on us. Junior's girls had a second agenda to deal with. Neo being Neo." Tukson did look up from his book at that part, expression one of shock.

"You know Neo?" I nodded at him, leaning back in my chair.

"Yeah, met her that one unscheduled day off. She seems to have taken an interest me, which yes does equal parts terrify and reassure me." He raised an eyebrow. "It's a positive interest. She's more interested in keeping me alive then doing anything else simply to watch what random things I stumble into." He considered that for a moment, slowly nodding.

"I can see that. You good to work?" I nodded at him. "Right, well, I'll be heading out again to deal with a few errands. Only thing scheduled is for Blake to swing by, so other than that should be a normal day." I blinked, considered.

"Oh, yeah, it is Monday, isn't it? And she comes by every Monday?" Tukson nodded.

"Yep. She likes to be consistent. She doesn't have any ordered books, but she'll probably bring some by and browse." I shrugged.

"S squared D squared boss. Have fun." I gave a lazy wave to him. He snorted, shaking his head, before leaving the shop, bell jingling behind him.

* * *

I turned the page in my book on Remnant's history. Something to pass the time, and I didn't feel like jumping back into my weapons and Dust studies my first day back. I shouldn't need Venator for quite some time yet, so I can take a day off with its designing. Today I turned to the history of Remnant. More specifically, a book on the legacy of the Arc family, as I somewhat remember Jaune Arc being relatively important, as team leader of JNPR.

_On the other hand, I may want to actively track him down soon. Guy desperately needs some help, if I remember correctly, and was mainly incredibly lucky to get past initiation to Beacon._

I paused in my thoughts as I felt two fairly powerful presences approaching. One I recognized, having felt it before. _Blake._ The other I didn't. It was… dark. Vengeful, angry, and somewhat bestial. Bestial in a manner like Blake and Tukson, so not so much bestial as a touch more animalistic than human presences. I quickly ran through the cast of characters in my head, hoping it wasn't someone completely new to deal with. _Who did Blake interact with… Oh wait!_

I looked up from my book to see Blake enter alongside a young man far taller than her. Brown hair with red streaks, color scheme of red and black, brown eyes, dispassionate expression. Figure I'm right, but just to make sure…

"Blake. Good to see you again." I inclined my head towards her and her companion. "Who's your friend?"

"Orion." Blake greeted me back neutrally. "This is an old friend of mine, Adam." Adam merely nodded in my direction, to which I nodded back. I could feel how dark that man was, so I'd rather keep things to a minimum. _At least my guess was right._ I took notice of paper bags held by both of them and raised an eyebrow.

"Books just yours, Blake, or both of yours?" Blake shook her head as they both approached the counter, me carefully moving a pile of books out of the way.

"Just mine. Adam isn't as big on reading, so the few he does have he keeps." She hefted her bag on the table, Adam easily doing the same. I began pulling them out and writing down which ones she was handing in, referencing the computer for trade value and the like. While I did so, Adam wandered over to the nonfiction section while Blake looked over my own reading material. She paused at a specific one, raising an eyebrow. "'Band of Hunters'? Isn't that a rather odd choice of reading material?"

Adam tensed up slightly at her words, I could feel him doing so. Both of them were a little wary, though to anyone else it would be unnoticeable. For one, anyone else wouldn't know they were faunus; they're quite good at pretending otherwise. For two, they're both members of the White Fang, which I shouldn't know, but I do anyway due to dimensional shenanigans. I shrugged at her words.

"One of the few accounts of the Faunus Revolution that isn't biased one way or another." Blake tilted her head curiously at me, blinking. _Damn, if you know what to look for, she is a cat…_ "Most records of that time are biased, for one side or another. While admittedly the Faunus were completely in the right during that time, I still prefer to have as unbiased a view as possible. This is one of the few, along with any thesis written by Doctor Oobleck." Blake nodded slowly as Adam returned to scanning the books.

"That's surprisingly fair of you. Most would argue for one side or another, but you take a rather neutral stance. It's quite rare. Tell me, Orion, what are your thoughts on Faunus discrimination, as we're on the topic?" Once again, both of them were wary of my answer. Hmm, if I answer incorrectly, I'd probably lose my job, due to A. Tukson being a Faunus and B. Tukson being a member of the White Fang, though again I shouldn't know that little fact. Also, fair odds that one of these two would attempt to kill me, considering they'd probably make really good… assassins. _Fuck._ _Better be careful. Or just be honest and myself._

"It's abhorrent. Aside from the basic fact that, you know, we already have a planet littered with soulless monsters bent on human genocide"—Adam snorted at that, while Blake sported a small smirk—"Faunus are no different from humans. Not literally." That last comment was added at the raised brow from Blake. "We all have souls, we mostly all have the ability to give a damn about each other-"

"Mostly all?" Surprisingly, Adam was the one who had spoke up this time. He had turned away from the books to look over at our conversation. I nodded, expression grim.

"There are some people in the world who are completely incapable of caring at all about others. Sociopaths, psychopaths… they're rare in the grand scheme of things, but they do appear. Anyway, where it really counts, there isn't any much difference between you and me, Blake." They both stilled, and I tilted my head at them. "What? I'm not blind."

Both of their hands twitched, as is to reach for a weapon that wasn't there. Yay civilian cover story! As it is now, I have better odds currently, as I'm currently wearing Caestus and am prepared to use it. They, meanwhile, lack their weaponry, and while Blake's semblance can be used, Adam's little energy absorb trick won't do him much good here. Blake restrained a growl, _wow she's vexed. _"What gave it away?" I shrugged, not overly worried.

"Aside from the bow on your head moving according your mood?" Blake blinked, as her bow twitched, then facepalmed. "Most wouldn't notice at all, but I'm a bit more perceptive than others. Anyway, aside from that, I have my own skills that I'd rather not advertise. Suffice to say, I can tell when someone is a Faunus. Yes, I know that you are too, Adam." They remained tense, ready to attack. I held up my hands, my sleeves falling down to reveal Caestus in its collapsed form, causing their eyes to widen. "What part of 'I hate discrimination' do you not get? Relax, I have no reason to reveal you. I won't tell anyone, either; if they can't figure it out themselves it's their own damn fault." The stalemate stayed for a second, before they both relaxed. I did so as well, dropping my arms and allowing my sleeves to cover Caestus once more. Adam nodded, a touch of respect in his eyes.

"Appreciated." Blake looked at Adam, then back to me, then sighed, rolling her eyes.

"So you know that Tukson is one, too?" I nodded. "Great. And you've kept him in the dark because…?"

"It amuses me. If I hadn't already figured it out, Neo would've told me anyway." They both blinked.

"Who?" was their response in stereo to that little remark. I waved them off.

"No one important to you guys. Now that all the drama and question and answer is done, you guys gonna buy some books or no?" They both relaxed and went to finding their books.

* * *

"Tony!" I crowed, walking up to the bouncer. Behind me, bemused, followed Adam and Blake, who after some conversation and book buying decided that since they had nothing better to do for the day that they would meet up with me after work and come drinking. We bypassed the line, earning some shouts and yells as we wandered up. I clasped forearms with Tony, who greeted me amicably.

"Opal. Good to see you. Friends of yours?" I nodded.

"Yep. You mind if we..?" He shook his head.

"Not at all. They're drinking on your tab, though." More shouts from behind us, and I barely felt someone step away from the mass of souls. _No one to worry about, but no point in getting cocky._ I turned around to look at the man who stepped up.

"And who the hell are you, to walk right in? We've all been in line for an hour at least!" I tilted my head at the man.

"And you would be?" He growled, fists clenching as I sighed, putting my hands behind my back, subtly activating Caestus. "Tell you what, you manage to knock me out, you get the privileges Junior has granted me as a close friend." Adam and Blake both began to back away from me while Tony watched on, amused, no doubt having heard from the twins about my ability to take care of myself. The man's fists tightened, before with a cry he swung out at me with a clearly telegraphed right roundhouse. My own hands came up and I easily caught his fist in my armored hand, causing him to cry out in pain. Not even bothering to waste time gloating, I stepped forward and smashed a slightly Aura infused kick into his gut, before hitting him in the face with a right uppercut while he was doubled over, sending him flying back, eyes glazed over. I sighed as I brought my arms down, collapsing my weapons.

"That would be why I get to walk right in. We're done here." I turned away as two of Junior's henchmen walked past to go drag him away from the property. Blake and Adam fell into step beside me as Tony just chuckled.

"Good show. Junior has your pay." I waved him off as our little group walked in, the giant doors opened enough for the music to be clearly audible. Blake tilted her head to look at me while we walked.

"For a bookstore employee, you seem to associate with Junior quite a bit. A tab, pay, VIP privileges." Her tone was light, showing that she meant the comment to be lighthearted. I shrugged.

"Now, why would a pair of upstanding civilians know who Junior is?" Blake looked away from that remark, while Adam just chuckled quietly. I shook my head. "I come here somewhat frequently, and I recently did a job for him as, like you said, I'm a bookstore employee." Adam let out a snort.

"Bookstore employee with a pair of decent weapons that he shouldn't have access to." I let out a chuckle of my own.

"I have friends." I gave a wave to Junior, who acknowledged me and my companions. "Feel free to go do your own thing. You both have free drinks up to a certain point since you're here with me, don't start any fights, and if anyone is talking shit about Faunus just tell one of Junior's men. Or the girls in the red and white dresses." Said girls were together overlooking the club from the DJs booth. "Junior doesn't tolerate discrimination. Granted, not for the same reasons as you or I, but still. Have fun, you two. I have business." They split away from me, their respective Auras joining the crowd. I could easily keep track, but for now I tuned out that particular sense and sat down at the bar across from the big owner, who passed me a drink.

"Opal." I took the drink and sipped at it. "I'll have your pay when it's a bit slower. By the way, Miltia is a bit upset." I paused before setting my drink down.

"Really? Sure it wasn't Melanie wearing Miltia's clothes?" Junior smirked at me. Before I could ask why, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Whoops. I returned my awareness to my senses before turning in my seat. "That was pretty fast, Miltia. You were at the DJ's booth last I checked." She simply held out her hand.

"Scroll." I blinked. Shrugged, before handing it to her. She typed a few things into it, before handing it back to me. She hesitated for a moment, before giving me a brief hug. Caught off guard, I wasn't able to return it before she released me and stepped back, seeming to be appraising me. "Thank you for saving me and my sister, Opal." After the longest sentence I have ever heard from her, she turned and melted into the crowd of dancers. I blinked. Blinked again. Turned back to the bar and picked up my drink.

"You know all the other people in the world? The ones with 'normal' lives? I really can't relate to them, Junior. I really can't." Junior just barked out a laugh as he wandered over to another customer, leaving me with my drink and my thoughts.

_I suppose this is my daily life. One odd thing after another. Guess 'normal' isn't going to be in my dictionary anytime soon._

**AN: Whoo! Finally! So, two reasons. A. Lack of muse. B. Lack of time to actually work on this. School and work consume quite a lot of it. Don't feel like writing a long-ass note for you folks, so just this a few minor things:**

**1\. Cover Image: So… if anyone could think of a suitable cover image for this story, that would be awesome, as I lack any talent whatsoever in art. And I feel like this story needs one. No real restrictions, just draw what you think might fit, to any of those who happen to have talent in that area. I would appreciate it muchly.**

**2\. Time-skip approaches! A full month time-skip, point of fact. Figured you all are getting as tired as I am of daily life, so we'll skip a chunk of it, as it'll be mostly the same thing for a bit. Feel free to fill up the void with various small talk between the cast and Orion. I'll give a broader view of what happens next chapter.**

**One again, many thanks to Veil Hasoc for proofreading! Please read, review, let me know what you think!**


	19. Chapter 19

**RRC: Thank you for your words and support! Means a decent amount to me. With this chapter, we shall break the 100k+ word count! Who's excited?**

** Posidon29: *gives cookie* I appreciate your words! I sincerely doubt that they are unique, I just apply what I think makes sense to what Aura can do.**

**Blake's disguise: Well, there's three reasons why Orion could tell. 1. He has enhanced perceptions, due to his partially realized Semblance. 2. He's paranoid. Extremely so. Because a good chunk of this world can kill him if he steps wrong. And 3. He kinda already knew she's a Faunus. AU shenanigans and all. A little bit unfair, yeah? You do have a point, a few people will be able to see through Blake's disguise throughout the story. Junior and Yang are two who will be able to, and canonically Sun can as well.**

** The reaper of insanity: I rather liked that myself, thought it very fitting.**

** edus: Thank you!**

** Raidentensho: We shall see. For sure, I am debating having the events in canon happening as they did, what with the changes Orion has already wrought.**

**Pairing: YOU ARE DENIED! Because I'm still not sure. I'll get you one in the next few chapters. Probably. Maybe. Don't hold me to it.**

** Observer: Ruby's cuteness is a lethal weapon that should be restricted. I may have him do that. And read to the end, I'll have a little note at the bottom.**

** Umbrardor: *gives cookie* Thank you for your kind words! That would be because RWBY has a much shorter history, and far less for us to work with. On the other hand, that openness leaves all sorts of possibilities, if one is really to give it a shot. One thing I think all writers shouldn't be afraid of is mimicking something from another fictional work. While it is all well and good to craft your own material, this site is called "fanfiction." Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and so many things have been created in our minds and shared with the world that there is only so much left that we think of while staying true to the world we are exploring.**

** Marronmario: *gives cookie* Thank you for your words! Hopefully I'll gather more followers with this chapter breaking the 100k+ word count. I try to keep Orion away from being too OP. In the future, he'll at most be able to fight on par with Yang. Of course, combat level is a thing I really don't feel like discussing, because of how variable such a thing can be.**

**That'll be it for you folks, now to why you're here! STORY TIME.**

**Passage of Time**

Time passed. Most of my days were spent working at Tukson's, my days off spent kicking back with the sisters or occasionally tracking down Ren and Nora (IE contacting them via Scroll) to hang out with them. Most days were rather routine: go to work, deal with the occasional acquaintance popping in to chat, go home, then either spar with Yang, work on my weapons with Ruby, or get more lessons in Aura from Qrow. In that manner, my skills in combat improved, and I was able to design and create another weapon for myself to have at my disposal. Unlike most Huntsmen, or anyone capable in combat on Remnant, I decided to not have only a single weapon, instead preferring to create a vast arsenal of different arms to either carry on my person or leave in storage in my room. For example, I wouldn't carry a weapon designed solely for Grimm around with me. I actually had a conversation about that with the prodigy designer…

**Flashback (there's gonna be a couple of these this chapter, deal)**

"_Why are you making so many weapons, Orion?" Ruby asked one day. The two of us, along with the ever cuddly Zwei, were in her room, working on a few of my weapon designs. Zwei was snoozing on her pillow while she sat at her desk and I was plopped on the floor with various sheets of paper and designs on the ground. I looked up at her, away from the work-in-progress idea of a polearm tentatively named Vulnus._

"_Why do you ask, Ruby?" She fidgeted in her seat, scanning her eyes across all the paper in her room. Along with my own designs were several common base designs and even a blueprint of Crescent Rose._

"_Well… it just seems weird for someone to have so many. Shouldn't you master just one weapon, and use it to the best of your ability?" I sat up straighter, cracking my neck as I contemplated her question. I hummed for a moment, before replying._

"_You're right, in a way. It is generally viewed as the better idea to learn and master one weapon, or one weapon at a time, depending on personal skill and preference." I shrugged. "However, I dislike that school of thought in today's era. With so many possible tools at your disposal, I feel it is better to use the right tool for the job. Which is somewhat adhered to." Ruby tilted her head to the side in confusion._

"_Really?" I nodded at her._

"_Yeah. Take a look at Crescent Rose. You built it mostly to hunt Grimm right?" She nodded rapidly, but I held up a hand to forestall her praises for her 'baby'. "And it's really good at doing that, as I've unfortunately seen firsthand. However, it's not that good against other people, now is it? At least non-lethal methods are extremely difficult with Crescent Rose." She pouted at that._

"_Wasn't thinking about fighting _people _when I made her," she muttered, and I laughed._

"_It'll still serve just fine as is Ruby, it's just you can see where your original intent lies in the creation of it. It's a very good multi-purpose tool, so is Yang's. I just like having options is all." She tilted her head at that._

"_That seems really unusual, Orion." I chuckled._

"_Right, because I'm such a conventional person."_

**End Flashback**

Every few days, I would instead swing by and bug Junior and Miltia at The Bear's Den, also getting into verbal spars with Melanie because she's very good at holding a grudge and I refuse to let her verbally attack me without responding. Though my first visit after the time I dragged along Blake and Adam was rather irritating…

**Flashback**

"_Tony! Good to see you!" I greeted the man as we clasped forearms. He nodded with a small smirk._

"_Back again, Opal? Really getting mileage out of Junior's free drink thing." I shrugged as I stepped away._

"_May as well. Plus it's interesting talking to him and Mil. And fighting with Melanie is at least never boring." He laughed at that, waving me past._

"_You're playing with fire, Opal." I just smirked as I walked into the club, nodding at the two henchmen on guard. Stepping inside, I was assaulted immediately by the techno beats preferred by Kuma for working nights. While he has all varieties of tracks upon request, most requests are either dubstep or techno while working. I wandered over to the bar and sat down as Junior approached from the other side, drink in hand. He passed it to me with a nod._

"_Opal. How's life." I raised my glass in mock salute to the big man._

"_Uneventful. Finally." I knocked back half of the glass in one go, grimacing slightly at the bitterness in the drink. I raised an eyebrow at him while he finished chuckling at my remark._

"_Figured you might want to try something new. Want me to let Miltia know you're here?" I shook my head. _

"_Don't really want to fight with Melanie quite yet. Wait till I'm tipsy." He barked out another laugh, and made to respond before hesitating, frowning at something behind me. Blinking, I turned, and my own expression twisted into a scowl. On the other side of the club, where various tables and chairs were arrayed (and bolted down) for patrons to sit and converse away from the dancing crowd were a group of men. Said group of men were apparently harassing a few women who were trying to move away from them, but were crowded against the table. Junior made to move before I held up a hand, forestalling him. At his look, I spoke again. "Want a hand taking out the trash?"_

_Junior's returning smile was anything but friendly. "Sure. More drinks for your tab?" Both of us stepped away from the bar, Junior gesturing to his boys to send him something._

"_Why not."_

* * *

"_Hello there, good sirs!" I spoke quite cheerfully for a man who was enraged. My hands encased in Caestus, clasped behind my back, I approached the group, watching Junior advance from their blindside with his personal batzooka in hand. They hadn't yet noticed him, which would make this all the better. "I would advise you to step away from the ladies, they seem rather unenthused of your company." A few did as advised, as if remembering where exactly they were. The remaining men, eight at a quick count, just glared at me._

"_And you would be better off staying out of our business." I sighed, rolling my shoulders._

"_How rude. It was just simple advice. Or maybe you drunk bastards are so damn desperate because you're so fucking ugly a working girl can't be paid enough to even consider being with you?" At my words I felt them all immediately go from 'slightly irritated' to 'pissed right the fuck off'. Oh wait, I felt a few of the ones who backed off do so too. Actually one of them was… yep. I ducked under a clumsy haymaker and let the man stumble past me. As he turned to attack me again, I straightened and proceeded to send him flying with an Aura-infused kick to the head. I brought my foot down as he landed, cracking my neck as the rest of them turned back to me._

"_Tae Kwan Leap: Boot to the head. Next." These idiots were completely outclassed, not just because I decided to just use Aura in every attack I would throw at them, but because they were at minimum drunk if not plastered because there's no way in hell they would even attempt this bull crap here otherwise. Junior doesn't tolerate it, and the twins are very _forceful _about their opinion on such things as well. At that point Junior had gotten close enough to tap one on the shoulder. As the man spun about, he was sent flying from a homerun swing by Junior that I calmly crouched under. The remaining men clustered together, facing either me or Junior, but I could see the ones facing me paling as I straightened up, bringing my hands up in a basic boxing position as I cracked a feral smirk at the trapped men._

"_You done goofed." With that, I charged forward, Junior doing the same as we laid into the fools who would be sent to the hospital in short order._

**End Flashback**

The aftermath of that incident did indeed get me free drinks, and a compliment from Melanie that _wasn't_ backhanded as all hell. Wonder of wonders. Along with that, I did talk more with Miltia. And by talk I mean conversing, not face-to-face. Apparently she does talk to people she opens up to, but it's a very short list. However, over text-based communication, she is quite the conversationalist. Also, ever since I bailed her and her sister out, if the two of us are ever alone she'll actually talk as well. Which has been odd…

**Flashback**

"_Hiding from Melanie?" a soft voice spoke up behind me. I looked up from my scroll, then looked up higher to see Miltia on the couch, leaning over the back of it to look down at me. I had accidentally pushed Melanie a touch too far verbally, and had bolted into the crowd after splashing my drink in her face to buy me a few precious seconds. When she also bolted into the crowd, I slipped away into the currently empty VIP room and hid behind the couch. While I was on high alert for the white twin's presence, that was not so for the red twin, who had apparently snuck in without alerting her sister._

"_Hi Mil. How'd you find me?" Her face disappeared before she cleared the couch and then plopped down to sit next to me, knees held to her chest._

"_You were keeping out of sight of my vengeful sister, not me or Junior. He was laughing his ass off as you ran." I scowled at that._

"_Bastard. I'll get him back." Wait… I blinked, before looking at Miltia. "Holy shit you actually talk," That earned me a pout from the twin that actually liked me._

"_Of course I talk. I'm not Neo." I waved my hands frantically, attempting to avoid offending her. Mainly because I'd rather not have both twins on my bad side._

"_I didn't mean it like that! It's just you're always so quiet, and I've only ever heard you say one or two words, not counting when you thanked me." She shrugged._

"_There were always people around. I prefer to be quiet most times anyway, let Melanie have the spotlight." I frowned at her at that comment._

"_I thought we had this conversation already." She kept a blank face in confusion, before it shifted slightly back to a neutral one._

"_I'm not upset about it, I just prefer it this way. I remember. As do the men I had brought with me. I'll get you back for that by the way." I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation._

"_It was a compliment!" She nodded._

"_I know. I stand by what I said." I rolled my eyes._

"_Joy. You are almost as difficult to talk to when you actually speak as when you don't, you know that?" She merely raised an eyebrow, expression neutral. "Forget it, not having this conversation. So what are the odds Melanie will find me here?" _

_Miltia considered for a moment. "Well, given that she can actively sense me due to being my twin, and she knows that I'm not on the floor-" The door slamming open cut her off mid-sentence, leaving me to develop a deadpan expression as I scrambled up from my sitting position to stare at the door, murder in the eyes of the white twin. For God's sake, her Aura was visible to everyone!_

"_Opppaaallll~" Yeah, that tone cannot possibly end well. She'd gone from anger in her voice to just having it be sickeningly sweet. Oh look, now she has a menacing black aura to serve as a backdrop to the white Aura exuding from her. That's actually a really cool trick, how did she- _analyze later, panic now, she wants to kill you! "_Why would you run? You're only delaying the inevitable." Miltia popped up from behind the couch, raising an eyebrow at me as if asking 'What now?'_

_I gave Melanie the blankest expression I could. "Yeah, how about… No. I like breathing. And not being in the hospital." Options quickly ran through my head, before I finally settled on one that had the best chance of me getting out of here uninjured. I triggered Caestus to envelop my arms, causing Melanie to scoff. _

"_You're getting better, but you already know that you still don't stand a chance against me in a fight." I shrugged._

"_Probably. I don't need to fight, I just need to get the hell out of dodge, though. That said…" I immediately crouched, grabbed the bottom of the couch, and sending large amounts of Aura through my arms I _heaved_, flipping it end over end towards the white fighter. Another scoff as a rapid kick from her heel sent a slash to cut it off, causing the ends to fly by either side of her. Before she could recover though, her eyes widened to see me coming at her feet first after jumping off the coffee table._

"_**DYNAMIC EXIT!"**_ _My body glowing orange, I slammed into her, still off-balance from her powerful kick, and sent her to ground, allowing me to roll forward and off, coming back up into a sprint as I still glowed orange, hauling ass as I ran. Behind me I could hear Melanie's shriek of rage and, very faintly, Miltia's giggling._

**End Flashback**

That was… very draining. I ended up dropping to about ten percent left of my Aura reserves before I stopped, at least fifteen blocks from the Den. I then proceeded to call Yang to pick me up on Bumblebee, as I was rather exhausted from staying alive. Yang laughed at me for running, but I simply bribed Ruby with cookies to super-speed tackle her the next day as payback. I am not above petty vengeance in such a manner.

Two weeks after I met Adam and Blake, Tukson assigned me to deliver a book to them. That little incident could have gone far better…

**One more Flashback (second to last one this chapter, I swear.)**

_I knocked on the door, as there was no doorbell. I stood in front of an average-looking house, a two-seater sports car parked in the driveway. Well-maintained lawn, open window on the second floor, white paintjob… not bad. Very blending, except for the car. As I considered knocking again, the door opened to reveal Adam, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He raised an eyebrow at me, causing me to cough and hold up a package._

"_Delivery from Tukson. I'm assuming for Blake as you didn't know?" He shrugged, before stepping back to let me enter, which I did. After the events at the bar, I had exchanged contact info with both Adam and Blake so as to keep in touch. I've had some surprisingly deep conversations with Adam about the treatment of Faunus and possible ways of garnering attention to it. While he—surprise surprise—did agree with and argued for the White Fang's methods, he was at least willing to listen to other possible ideas, and debate the possible merits of them. No idea if he's suggested any to the White Fang, as they haven't been active for the past two weeks since I met him, but I can hope._

"_Blake rarely tells me when she orders books, or what she orders. She's in her room, this way." He started ascending a set of stairs, me following close behind. I looked around as we walked, noticing the rather Spartan layout of the house, though I decided against commenting about it; I had a fairly good guess as to why it was so. "Do you know why Tukson decided to have you deliver it instead of just keeping it for her next visit?" I shrugged._

"_Not really. It _was _listed as a rush order, though, so that might be it. I don't even know what book or books are in this package, and I decided that I don't want to know either." Adam raised an eyebrow, causing me to cough and look away. "Tukson has a sense of humor at times, and I wouldn't put it past him to have me deliver the next 'Ninjas of Love' book to her just to get her to attack me." Adam paused in the hallway, as we had finally finished going up the stairs and were now at the head of them. Down one side were a set of rooms, and down the other was a bathroom and a window, the window that I noticed outside._

"He _started her on that book?" I let out a heavy sigh and nodded. His face grew grim. "Perhaps I shall have to talk to him about that. Here's her room." He knocked on it, and waited. Silence. He looked at me, I shrugged, he did the same, and I stepped forward as he opened the door, and then we both paused. And stared._

_Laying on her bed, eyes closed, was Blake. Her eyes were closed, and she had headphones in her ear, explaining why she didn't answer her door. Oh yeah, she was also _stark naked_. Lying next to her was 'Ninjas of Love', lying upside down and open, I'm assuming she was using it. Her hands were currently _very _occupied, and her body was sweating, panting hard, face flushed. Adam and I both stared for several moments before her eyes shot open and she stared back. I took about a second to memorize the image in front of me before grabbing Adam's arm and slamming the door closed. I then slapped him and he shook himself, glaring at me. I pointed out the window._

"_You have the keys to that car with you? Can you drive it?" He scowled._

"_Yes and yes, but why-" I interrupted him._

"_Got your scroll with you? Weapon?" His scowl deepened._

"_Yes and it's next to the front door. What does it-" He was interrupted, but not by me this time. Instead, it was a piercingly loud shriek of female fury. All of the blood instantly left his face as he suddenly realized the purpose of my questions. "Oh. Oh _shit." _I nodded frantically._

"_Now you understand. Take the stairs, grab your weapon. I'm taking the window. __**Move!**_" _We both bolted down the hallway, him turning and jumping down the stairs, me sprinting at the window and diving through it, reaching into myself and urging my Aura to cover me. It did so, and I flew out the window and rolled as I hit the lawn outside. Coming to my feet, I rushed at the car, Adam hauling ass out of the front door as we could hear unintelligible female screaming from the second story. I vaulted the hood as he scrambled into the driver's side, fumbling with the keys as I hopped into the passenger seat. I closed my eyes as I reached out with my senses, feeling for the female faunus, only to have them snap open again as I felt the blood drain from my face now, just as Adam started the car. I activated Caestus and held them up, deflecting a bullet out of pure luck as Blake's head popped out the window, a towel wrapped around her torso and Gambol Shroud in its pistol form in her hand. _

"_Fuck man, floor it! Go, go, go, go!" Heeding my words, and the second bullet bouncing off the hood, Adam did indeed punch it, tires squealing as we pulled out of the driveway and turned, tearing down the road as I covered my head and blocked one more bullet from the enraged cat-girl. We sped down in silence, listening to Blake's shrieks slowly fading away. As we put more and more distance between us, I sighed and slouched in my seat, deactivating Caestus._

"_I swear I saw my life flash before my eyes. These past couple of weeks have been way too fucking eventful." Adam nodded._

"_I need alcohol. I need to get that image out of my head." I gave him a weird look. "Blake is like my _sister_. I really didn't need to see that, and I really need to forget I saw that." I shrugged as I pulled out my scroll._

"_Head towards Junior's, I have free drinks and am willing to share as you got me out of there faster. Brotherly bonding yeah?" He snorted as I made a few deft swipes on my scroll before bringing it up to my head. "Hey Tukson."_

"_Orion? The hell you calling for? Weren't you just doing a delivery to Blake?"_

"_Yeah, that didn't pan out too well. I won't be able to go back to work till tomorrow for fear of Blake being able to find me or Adam. I'll see you tomorrow, boss."_

"_Wait, hold on, wha-"_ _I hung up on him mid-sentence and set my scroll to mute, slipping it into my pocket. The male faunus spoke up after a moment._

"_Harsh." I leaned back in the seat, draping an arm over my shoulders._

"_While I don't mind having the image in my head, I'd rather not Blake find me within the next 24 hours. At least at Junior's I can get people in between me and her till I can get the hell out of dodge." Silence was my only reply, and we drove along in peace for a time. Adam then spoke up again._

"_You do know if you describe to anyone what you saw that if Blake doesn't kill you, I will?" I snorted._

"_Because I'm a such a sterling example of a moron." Silence. "Gotta admit though, the cat-ears really-"_

"_Damnit Orion, shut it before I stab you! I swear I will!" I began to crack up, arm over my eyes still. "Now it's in my head! I hope you regret this, you bastard, I'm drinking under your tab till I can't see straight! Oi! You listening?! Oi!" With that the rest of the trip was spent with me laughing while Adam ranted about me refusing to let him purge the image out of his head._

_He did drink till he dropped. Junior just tossed him into a room after he did, then cracked up once I told him why Adam was drinking and why I had gotten there so early. I punched him in the shoulder for that._

**End Flashback**

"Orion!" Twin shouts were heard outside the door of my place of employment. I looked up from my book to see said door slamming open allowing two brunette males to jump in and slam it closed behind them. I blinked as the two, one with a lock colored magenta, spun and looked at me. They spoke in unison still, in sync despite having absolutely no knowledge of each other. "Hide me!" I threw a thumb behind me at the office, which had its door open, and they both bolted, jumping over me and the counter in one smooth motion, closing the door behind them. I sighed, turning the page as I began mentally counting down before the door slammed open again to reveal a certain cat faunus.

"_Where is __**he?!**_" Blake had a fire in her eyes comparable to that of Yang's, her white-knuckled grip on Gambol Shroud spelling doom for the poor man I had just hid. I pointed at a convenient door to the right of the office.

"Shipping door. I think I heard him put something to bar it though, I'd advise going around." The door slammed closed again, the bell jingling violently as the highly pissed off woman scaled the shop to its roof. I sighed, going back to my book.

_Nothing at all unusual. At least it's not me for once… _After a few minutes, feeling Blake's Aura disappear I spoke up. "Blake's gone, you can come out now." They both did so, eyes still a little wide from panic, Ren's less so, though. I tilted my head at them both.

"I can guess why Adam is here, and you can tell me later what you managed to do to piss her off _again_ in two weeks, but why are you here, Ren? You don't even know him or Blake." Adam looked away when I addressed him, while Ren gave a solemn nod.

"This is true. However, I needed a place to hide from Nora." I tilted my head at him curiously, as his eyes became haunted. "That coffee shop of yours, you ever tell them about any drink ideas?"

I nodded slowly. "A few, yeah. While I go there more for the atmosphere as I personally don't like coffee, I had a bunch of friends who drank it religiously- what did they give her?" I was now a little worried as Ren grabbed my shoulders, the haunted look in his eyes extending to his entire face.

"I didn't catch the name, but it was something with six shots of espresso." I paled immediately at that.

"Oh shit." I briefly considered the ramifications of that, then recoiled in horror. "Yeah… you guys are going to hang out here till I get off, then we're going to go see Junior for a job. Somewhere out of town, preferably the next twenty-four hours." Adam looked like he was going to object, so I simply raised an eyebrow at him. "How long do you think you can hide from Blake in town?"

Immediately Adam spun and began browsing books. "Let me know when we're leaving." I chuckled, noticing his sword attached to his hip. I looked back at Ren as the thought occurred to me.

"You have your weapons." He gave me a solemn nod before going to browse books himself. I shrugged, leaning back in my chair again and opening up my book. I never left home now without Caestus and Oppugnator, which after much bugging from Ruby I shortened to Opug, so I had my weapons. At least today was a Saturday.

* * *

"Well that's surprising." I told this to my current two traveling companions as we approached The Bear's Den. It was dead quiet, which was highly unusual. Standing aside were a pair of goons and Melanie, who at least had dialed back the glare level from 'murder you slowly' to 'maim you'. The three of us walked up to her as she gestured to get out attention. "What's up Melanie? Club's almost always open."

Melanie rolled her eyes. "I guess Junior lucked out somehow, he was going to have Miltia send you a message." A beeping from my scroll had me pull it out, which was indeed a message from the red twin telling me that Junior wanted to talk to me about something. "Junior has a job for you and anyone you feel like bringing along. That monkey from Vale is here too." I felt Adam tense, but I lifted a hand to forestall him.

"Sun doesn't give a damn about being called a monkey, he actually refers to himself that way a time or two. It's not an expression of disdain for being a faunus, he just really does act like one, far more than just subconscious heritage. He does it on purpose." I turned my attention back to the blank-faced Melanie, who had reverted to a neutral expression upon realizing I had brought guests. "And he didn't send you guys because?"

She gave a small shrug. "Wants to keep us nearby for some reason. Just go in and talk to him." The three of us went past her and into the silent club. Well, silent compared to what it normally was. Several of Junior's Henchmen were moving crates and chatting quietly, with Kuma and Tony up in the DJ's booth overseeing. I waved at them, only for a return nod and a gesture from the bouncer to head to the VIP room. Fair enough. We began walking that way, Ren speeding up to be by my side so he could speak.

"Friend of yours?" I nodded.

"In a manner, yeah. I know most of the important people here, and I'm on good terms with the owner. He occasionally hires me to do legally grey things, such as acquiring books or helping out with drunk patrons in the club. Nothing actually illegal, but it looks kind of bad if you squint at it." He gave a contemplative nod as we approached the VIP room. Opening the door I was greeted by Junior sitting on the middle couch and Sun on the left, the latter relaxing back on it. Their attention turned to the door and Sun jumped up to greet us.

"Opal! Good to see you!" We clasped forearms briefly before we all moved to sit down, Sun and I at the left couch and Adam and Ren on the right. I raised an eyebrow at the blond.

"The hell you doing here Sun?" He gave a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Well… I decided to move out of Vacuo and head to somewhere else. I stopped here briefly to see the sights and pick up a bit of spending cash for in Mistral." Oh right, he did go to Haven before the series. That's where he met Neptune and became leader of SSSN. Junior coughed to get our attention, so we ended our conversation and looked to the big man, Ren and Adam doing the same as they had been quietly talking to get to know each other a little better.

"Opal. You trust all these guys? They can all fight?" I nodded. I had personally fought alongside Sun, I could explain away my trust of Adam's skills by the fact that he had a personalized weapon, and as for Ren…

**Flashback (Last one, I swear)**

"_So what's up, Ren?" I'd met up with the quiet man in a small clearing in a forest just outside of Vale. Today was Thursday, and since I had nothing better to do, with my roommates being at school, I had decided to bug Ren, who had asked me to meet up with him a short distance out of town. After making sure I had both Caestus and Opug on me, knowing my damnable luck, I had done so. The quiet boy was sitting atop a boulder about four feet in diameter, with Nora nowhere in sight._

"_Orion." He gave me a small nod. "I merely wanted to test something. Nora?" At his words the bouncy redhead appeared, though I wasn't surprised as I had felt her hiding behind the boulder. What did surprise and worry me was that she had Magnhild in its hammer form in her grasp. I took a nervous step away._

"_Uuhh… what exactly did you want to test, Ren old buddy old pal?" Ren merely pointed at Nora, who spoke rapidly, twirling her hammer._

"_Wellll… Renny said that you sparred all the time with your roommates! But then I asked why didn't you spar with us, and he had no reply for that, and so we both got curious, and invited you out here so we could spar with you freely!" I developed a blank expression._

"_She's going to try and smash me and I'm going to have to dodge, aren't I?" He nodded solemnly._

"_I would advise attacking. If you stick solely to defensive maneuvers, she will make you pay. I know this from experience." _

_**-Cue Super Street Fighter 4: Theme of Cody-**_

"_You are just the worst type of people." Immediately after that, I let out a startled yelp as I dived away from my position, Nora bringing her hammer down upon where I was. A decent crater formed where she struck, and I knew that I _really _didn't want her to hit me. "Oi oi, can't we talk about this?" Nora cheerfully brought up Magnhild and twirled it._

"_Nooope~" With that, she leaped forward, swinging her hammer vertically. Cursing, I leaped backwards again, triggering Caestus as I did so to cover my arms. She continued spinning, swinging Magnhild like a toy. Jesus, how strong is she? It was all I could do to keep backstepping out of reach- _Oh fuck tree! _I took a chance and dive-rolled underneath her next swing, rolling away as she smashed into the tree. The tree developed a sizable gouge and began to fall down, before crashing down to the earth. I staggered to my feet, casting a glare at Ren as I couldn't see Nora, though I could certainly feel her on the other side of the tree._

"_I am going to make you pay." He shrugged._

"_I would advise moving right now." As he finished, I heard an explosion and hauled ass away from the tree as Nora flipped over it, hammer in hand. She slammed into where I had been, cheerfully humming some nameless tune. Ok, screw this, if I don't do something I'm going to be in a world of pain! With but a thought I sent a pulse of Aura to my legs, carefully stepping back with first my left foot, then my right, my boots became enveloped in metal, with noticeable bulges on the side of each. I shook my head, muttering under my breath as Nora and Ren watched on at two new toys coming into play._

"_Haven't even tested these… No time like the present!" With that I charged forward, metal boots loudly impacting the ground. Nora let out a whoop of excitement as she rushed to meet me, hammer prepared for an overhead swing. Step… step… step… right as I got within range of her hammer, I hit the deck and slid to her right as she swung down, barely missing being hit. As she impacted the ground, I rolled to my left, channeling Aura to my left hand as I rolled to support myself upon only it, legs aimed at Nora. Another pulse of Aura, and the recovering hammer wielder was blasted away from me by twin shotgun blasts as the recoil from Opug sent my legs flying into the air, flipping me back to land on my feet as Nora got back into a ready stance, a bit more serious after taking the full brunt of a shotgun blast with her Aura. I brought my hands up in a classic boxing position, cracking my neck._

"_Let's try again with a bit more even odds, yeah?"_

**End flashback and music**

Yeah, anyone who can regularly spar and keep up with Nora is a damn good fighter. As I was coming out of my memories, Junior had resumed speaking.

"Alright then. Recently, there's been some odd things happening a few dozen miles out of Vale. What used to be a clear plain developed overnight into a mile-wide forest, alive and well. The odd thing is, the Grimm avoid it almost religiously, and anywhere between here and the forest is entirely clear of Grimm. While normally Huntsmen would investigate this little matter, it's been deemed unimportant due to a sudden build-up of Grimm to the west, putting this on the backburner." Junior leaned back on his couch. "Thing is, someone important has gotten very interested, and has paid me to find out." I spoke up at this point.

"I'm assuming that's where we come in?" He nodded.

"Right. While it's clear of Grimm, something is scaring them off, and my boys probably wouldn't fare too well. I need the twins around here for now as we got a massive shipment of supplies for the bar and my men" –hence the club being closed down I suppose– "so I needed to outsource this one. You're far more perceptive than most, giving you an edge, and you seem to know a number of combat-capable people. I figure the four of you should be able to investigate this easy enough." I nodded, looking at the others.

"Well, you guys in?" Sun spoke first, thumping his chest reassuringly.

"Hey, we've fought a gang together, how bad could this be? Besides, paycheck!" Adam spoke next.

"If it gets me out of Vale for a bit, and far away from Blake until she cools off, I'm in." Ren nodded as well.

"Between Nora on a caffeine high, or mysterious forest, I pick forest." Holding back a chuckle, I turned back to Junior.

"Alright, we're in, it seems. Though, if we could grab a few things from you, such as transport?" Junior nodded and stood, gesturing for us to follow him through the club to a door I hadn't noticed before in the back.

_Yet another adventure. Can't I have a normal life?_

**AN: And done! This time, Orion heads out on an adventure alongside Sun, Adam, and Ren! Team SORA (temporarily) head off to investigate the mysterious Grimm repelling forest on the request of Junior, after procuring a few things beforehand. Orion's not slow, he's going to be prepared. Thoughts for you:**

**Weaponry: Notice how everyone important has a signature multi-purpose weapon? Aside from Jaune, anyway. Well, Orion prefers to be a jack-of-all trades, master of none, and so will have multiple weapons. I'll classify these in two ways: named weaponry, which will be equipment he's forged himself for specific purposes, and borrowed weaponry, equipment he has procured from past enemies or acquired temporarily that any common man could acquire for their own day to day use. **

**Oppugnator: Opug for short, it stands for "attacker" in Latin. Similar to Mercury's greaves, only a lot more bare-bones and ghetto-ish. They're essentially shotguns on his legs. Collapsed, they're two solid strips of metal resting above his boots. No, he won't be using these without his shoes unless it's an emergency. And yeah, the recoil will throw him around, so he'll be using them sparingly.**

**Incident with Blake: This is rated M, ya know. Blake is a sixteen year old girl with erotica, and point of order, she's a Faunus, which in my book means closer to your instincts than most humans. Yeah, she masturbates, most people do. I avoided being too descriptive out of personal choice; you feel like reading smut, then go search other fics. She also, like any girl, will react violently to being found out. Yes, Adam and Orion ran like hell, because feminine fury is terrifying.**

**Adam and Blake: Personally, I don't really view them as a couple. I see them more as a mentor-student relationship, with hints of viewing one another as siblings. That'll pop up more in the story as we see them more. Sorry BlakexAdam fans, not happening here. Personal opinion affects shipping inside story, yay!**

**Orion vs. Nora: Yeah… Nora is terrifying. Think about it: she wields a grenade launcher on a stick, essentially. And she's good enough with hammer skills to beat **_**Yang.**_ **In my opinion, you want to dodge as much as possible, hence Ren's own acrobatic fighting style, as there is no blocking. No worries, after the flashback Orion got his ass handed to him. He's still learning.**

**That's about it. Oh, one more thing…**

**Canon: Sooo… 100k words in, and I've affected a lot. I know for a fact that I'll be subverting the Yellow Trailer, and Sun and Ren have now met far before canon. As well, Adam interacts with other characters now, and all of the characters have a link with me (though few are truly aware of one another.) With this chapter going up… will be a poll on my profile. That poll will be a question to you folks, of whether after a year storyline wise, I start with canon, and try to stay as true as possible despite my changes, or I start canon, and write it as I feel any changes may have done to it, such as Neo knowing me and what I can do. There will be more instances of canon subversion over time (we'll be seeing the wizard within a few chapters), and I'm unsure myself. So: stay as true to canon as possible, or just write as how the story takes me, with canon serving more as a guideline than a rule of the future?**

**Still looking for a cover image for this. Feel free to pm any suggestions to me for it! Any fan art will also be appreciated, if any of you are so inspired to create any.**

**Many thanks again to Veil Hasoc for proofreading, and thanks to you my readers, for following along! Quite honestly, if you guys didn't read this, I probably would have stopped after the first chapter or so, because I wouldn't have any real compulsion to put it up for you to read. So, please leave your thoughts in a review for me to see, and vote on the poll when I get that up as well! If you don't feel like publicly leaving your thoughts, even anonymously, feel free to send a pm instead! I'm always willing to chat with my readers and debate ideas and topics!**


	20. Chapter 20

**My loyal readers, I appreciate your words! Seems like a lot seem heavy into my forging a new path… meh. We'll see. For some user specific replies here:**

**Metaphysical god: *gives cookie* You have a long name. And if I did derail canon, I'll more than likely give Roman, Neo, or Cinder more love. As is, I've made Neo a bit more powerful than she is in canon. Orion's presence may inspire changes in not only the good guys, but the villains as well.**

**HikariNoTenshi-San: No no he can't. He's like Harry Potter, only a lot more determined to make sure he walks away. And it doesn't work, but two counter-points: First, of the four, Sun is an actual team leader eventually in canon, whereas Adam is an agent of the White Fang, Ren is a member, and Orion will not be a Hunter. So, by rights, Sun could be considered the leader. Second, it's only a short term team. Similar to Orion teaming up with Melanie, Miltia, Neo, and Sun before, or Orion with Yang and Ruby, so no actual team name. However, that does remind me, if anyone feels like coming up with names for the temporary teams Orion gets tossed together with throughout the story, I'd appreciate it. **

**The interactions with the girls were intended to be hilarious yes. Similar to any anime, feminine fury is a terrifying thing (or in Nora's case, feminine hyper mode). The only one who'll be able to consistently avoid it is Orion, simply because he is based off me and I'm perfectly able of avoiding the Fury™, and also because I'm from our world, where feminine fury is on a far less lethal level. And yeah, sextuple shot espresso Nora? No, no, hell no. And Orion has two weapons for certain, with two more for sure on the way. He'll also pick up other odds and ends over his travels, and will pick up gifts from the people he interacts with (we'll one of those this chapter).**

** Raidentensho: The next adventure is here! And he'll get moments of self-reflection with advice or tales from anyone he's worked with. Qrow will be a big one, but others will be prominent as well, such as Ren or Ruby for hand-to-hand Aura usage or weapon analyzing.**

** Marronmario: Blake's wrath is indeed more terrifying than any other in this story, aside from possibly Neo 'cause she's already a bit twisted.**

** Observer: *snaps fingers* I knew I forgot to introduce someone! Thank you for that reminder, we'll be seeing Coco (and Velvet, actually all of CFVY) here in a chapter or two. My excuse is that school work kept them busy.**

** Gravenimage: *gives cookie* Orion will take training and advice from everyone, it's just Qrow and the sisters happen to be the most prominent due to his living situation. And not only is the OC not interested in being a Hunter, I have no intention of making him do so. Far too easy of a route. While he will help the Huntsmen and students, he will not be one himself.**

** Chaosstripe: *gives cookie* Quite.**

** Golum: *gives cookie* Thank you! I personally feel there are several very good authors out there, and I still need a lot of work. I'm willing to give it a shot, though.**

** Reaper of insanity: *gives cookie* Yes, that probably is, except "woman scorned" means a woman rejected in a derisive manner. Not the case here, but something to keep in mind folks.**

** Ultima-owner: Actually, that drink is more-so for Ruby's destructive benefit. Nora making use is a nice side benefit.**

** Misplaced Reader: Good to hear from you again! While I would reply to your review in its entirety **_**here…**_** That would consume a lot of room for the chapter itself. I'll send, or will have already sent, a pm to ya for comments on your thoughts. Orion is 5'9", for future reference for all though.**

** Unfocused Brain: *gives cookie* I suppose the butterfly effect does exist for more than just time travel.**

** Eloquent Guest: The cast members I meet are kind of a coin flip, just who runs through my head as to who I'm most likely to meet in a given situation. And admittedly, I could probably pick any other language, but I felt Latin to be the most appropriate, a dead language from a different realm being used in a realm nearly dead.**

** Xuan Tian Shang Ti: *gives cookie* You're welcome? As much as I write for you guys, I write for myself as well. Glad other people enjoy it.**

** Deinokos: *gives cookie. And milk.* So… I never noticed that, I swear. Thanks for pointing that out though, by the time you're reading this that should be fixed.**

**That's all for now folks, who's ready for a story?**

**The Soulless Flee**

"Is all of that really necessary?" This was asked by Sun from his position across from me. Junior, after a few quick words, agreed to supply us with transport and, in my case, some spare weaponry in case things went sour. By transport, I mean a fairly large truck, with Adam driving and Ren reading something on his scroll in the passenger seat while Sun and I rode in the back. In the back keeping us company were several firearms, ammo, explosives, and other miscellaneous combat or investigative items, not counting whatever weapons I knew Junior had strapped underneath the benches Sun and I were sitting on. I shrugged as I continued sorting through weaponry.

"I want you to think very carefully about the last time you hung out with me, and how that ended. And the fact that Grimm are _avoiding_ this place." I pocketed a few grenades as I came across them. "I'd rather be safe than sorry." Sun considered that for a moment. There was a heartbeat.

"… Pass me one of those grenades, would you?" I did as asked, and he slipped it into one of his own pockets. "Thanks." I continued to sort through the equipment given to us as Sun went silent. Ren spoke up next, not looking up from his scroll.

"While I won't argue the necessity of some of those, is _that _really necessary?" _That_ was a massive metal-bar like object, standing at four feet tall and two feet wide and being a good foot and a half thick. It was propped lengthwise against the back of the truck, and had several holes on the top end of it.

"I would say no, but knowing my luck…" I shrugged, looking it over again before stuffing a flashbang in my pocket. "I'll be leaving it here. While Junior's old launcher is stupidly powerful and could probably wipe out anything we might across out here short of a deathstalker or a goliath, it's heavy as fuck. When we get to the forest I'll be carrying multiple side-arms, several hand-held explosives, a shotgun, and an assault rifle." Ren actually turned around at that, raising an eyebrow. I glared at him accusingly. "That's not even close to overkill, the crap I get into. Plus, you hang out with a chick who wields a _grenade launcher on the end of a pole._" He opened his mouth to argue, thought better of it, then returned to his scroll.

"Fair enough." Adam snorted from where he was driving, focusing on the plains we were traversing now. The forest was a speck in the distance that was rapidly growing larger.

"So, walking armory aside…" He ignored my indignant grumbling at that, jackass. "What exactly are we walking into here?" I picked up a pistol, dropping out the clip to inspect it carefully.

"A forest that the Grimm avoid like we do the plague. Very dense, can't see worth shit through it except for the very odd fact that there seemed to almost be a pathway of sorts deeper into the forest from the direction of the city, i.e. where we're approaching it from. That's about it." I reinserted the clip with a satisfying _click!_, holstering it in a pocket of my jeans after making sure the safety was on. Up front I could feel Adam's irritation at the lack of information.

"That's all we have? Thought Junior was the best info broker there is?" I picked up an SMG, gave it a cursory inspection, before thinking about it and looking over at Ren.

"Ren, SMGs are more to your department right? Mind looking this over?" He held a hand behind as I passed him the weapon. I turned my attention to Adam while Ren looked over the gun. "He is, it's just that's all the info _anyone_ has on the damn place. Hence why he's sending us to find more info so he can actually provide it." Ren passed me back the gun and I stuffed it into one of the holsters on a set wrapped around my chest. Junior was nice enough to provide places for me to put the damn guns as well as the guns. And ammo. I lifted up a collapsible dagger, considered it, before putting it back where I found it. If I needed a blade, I had Caestus. "Look at the bright side. Least there aren't any Grimm, right?"

Adam let out a long-suffering sigh as we drew closer to the forest.

"Yeah, that's not foreboding or anything," Sun said as he hopped down from the truck, frowning as he surveyed the 'entrance' to the forest in front of us. It had a bleak atmosphere, most likely due to the trees preventing the sun from reaching past their branches. The roots were overgrown elsewhere, and the lack of grass suggested it had killed any normal plant life on the ground. I frowned at that, reaching out mentally.

"_Shit!" _I hissed as I recoiled away, taking a step back from the cursed plants while the others gave me worried looks. I shook myself visibly. "Right, something is very, very wrong with those trees. I am now certain that the weaponry Junior gave us was not overkill." Adam and Ren considered that while Sun continued to frown at the forest, before the both of them walked back over to the truck and began rifling through the back for ammo and grenades. Sun spoke up as they did so, tone grim.

"You going to be alright, Opal?" I slowly nodded as I looked down in the rifle in my hands, before tossing it at the truck, getting an irritated shout from Adam. I pulled out a handgun from one of my many holsters and cocked it before activating Caestus on only my left hand.

"Yeah, so long as I don't try sensing the flora again. This place… It has a sickening aura about it. All living things have Aura, yeah?" Sun nodded as Adam and Ren came back from the truck. "Well, from what I can tell, the Aura from whatever lives in this place, plants included, is as close to Grimm as one can get without being one." The three contemplated my words for a moment. Ren activated Stormflower and gripped his weapons tightly, Adam shifted his grip on Blush while Sun fully connected Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang to form their staff form. I sighed, rolling my shoulders.

"Let's go."

"I feel watched," Sun said as the four of us followed the path deeper into the forest, all of us tense and alert. I let out a humorless chuckle.

"We've been watched ever since we approached this damn forest, it's just now we're actively surrounded." I could feel the other three shift at my statement, grouping closer together and putting their backs to one another. "In all honesty, I would've have noticed if I wasn't already tuning out the flora here. It's quite easy to be ambushed here it seems, the very presence of these overgrown trees masks the presence of the local fauna." I quite calmly hefted my pistol, pointing it into the undergrowth. "At least we have room to fight."

_**Bang!**_

I fired, spurring movement all around us and for growling to echo through the forest. Wolf-like beasts began slipping out from the plants, causing me to frown at their vague familiarity. Something about the… _Not the time, here they come!_

**-Play FFIX OST: Hunter's Chance-**

"At least Grimm I know how to fight." This was from Ren, as he smoothly brought up his pistols and fired at the beasts in front of him, causing them to scatter from the bullets. Sun swung his staff and smoothly knocked one of the beasts away with a small explosion as it lunged at him. Adam fired his weapon, knocking one back before seamlessly grabbing his blade and cutting it down, red blood spurting from it. Adam side-stepped a lunge from another before cutting it down as well.

"Just pretend they're beowolves then, Hunter. Least these ones go down easy." Adam spoke calmly as he flipped the sheath in his hand before firing on another, causing it to let out a mournful howl as it collapsed. I fired at another before punching one with Caestus's blade as it lunged at me, sending it back bleeding before I fired again, dropping it. I frowned, noting something.

"At least Grimm don't mess up our clothes. These things aren't fading, nor is their blood. Watch your step, you really don't want to trip over any dead bodies now of all times." I tensed as I felt something approach before spinning and catching another mid-lunge, fangs clasped around my gauntlet. I narrowed my eyes at the growling beast before leveling my pistol at its head. "Piss off." A gunshot and its grip around my arm loosened before it fell to the ground. I looked around as more beasts were emerging from between the trees. "They're as numerous as Grimm though." Sun chuckled as he smacked another beast away, completely at ease as he switched his staff to gunchuck form.

"Down you go!" So saying, he began swinging, shots firing rapidly and cutting down multiple at a time in front of him. Ren darted between their ranks on his side, whirling and cutting down beasts with his blades, firing occasionally on a distant foe. Adam's blade danced as blood stained its edge, droves of the beasts falling as he fought. I backhanded one mid-lunge, knocking it away before firing and dropping it. I performed an about face and fired again, dropping another before turning and firing again, and again, and again. I lost track as I fired, only vaguely aware of the others around me as I occasionally caught glimpses as I dodged the beasts, occasionally stabbing one of them with my left hand. I turned on one more, pointing my weapon and pulling the trigger, only for nothing to happen. I mentally cursed as I dropped my weapon and cocked my right hand back as it lunged at me. Caestus enveloped my right hand, and I punched it solidly in the head, dropping it to the ground. Not giving it time to recover, I popped out my blades and stabbed them both into the back of the creature's neck, blood spurting everywhere from the action. I stepped away and retracted my blades, noticing that the noise had died down around me. I turned and looked around to see Adam sheathing his blade after wiping it off, while Ren calmly reloaded his guns. Sun had reformed his weapon back to staff, ignoring the shells around him. Adam spoke, a touch of humor in his voice as he looked over his attire.

**-End Music-**

"I liked these clothes." Sun snorted at that while Ren began cleaning his blades of blood. I sighed, retracting my weapon from my right hand and picked up my pistol. Ejecting the spent clip, I pulled out a new one and put it in, cocking the gun calmly.

"We'll put it on Junior's tab, as it's his fault we're here. Quit bitching, Adam, it was either this or deal with a pissed off Blake." Adam seemed to be considering those two options, as if they were fairly equal at this point. I blinked. "Seriously, what did you do to piss her off man? You're risking your life here, it can't be that bad." Adam shook his head.

"You really don't want to know. Let's just say that between the forest of doom or Blake right now, I'm sticking with forest of doom." Sun let out a low whistle, while even Ren raised an eyebrow. I sighed, motioning at the path with my gun.

"Well, ever forward then, I suppose." We grouped up before moving forward again. Something was off, I felt. I couldn't really feel any fauna around us, but it wasn't that. It was the look of the beasts. For some reason, they really seemed familiar to me. "Hey guys, any of you recognize these things? From anything?" Sun shook his head, as did Adam though Ren seemed to be considering. He spoke thoughtfully.

"They seem like mutated wolves of a sort, though what could do that I'm unsure. You seem worried about something." I started to shake my head, then paused.

"Something just seems really off about this place, and these things too… There's something about it the forest that is poking at my memory like a cat does a ball, but I have no idea what. It's a bit irritating." Adam snorted at my comparison, but otherwise remained quiet. I sighed, cracking my neck. "It'll come to me in time, let's keep going." The others shrugged and we continued into the forest, a bit more wary, but less tense, as while we knew there were hostiles here, they weren't much of a threat.

They walked in silence for a time, until Sun couldn't take it anymore and spoke up. "Man, Orion, you get up to some weird shit. Hey, where's that colorful kid you were with? The one with the umbrella?" Orion didn't look back from his position up front, though he did answer.

"Neo? No idea, that woman is psychotic or sociopathic. Either way, I don't actively seek her out, she just tends to find me when she gets bored." Sun blinked. What?

"Hold up. Woman? She seemed younger than us!" Orion snorted at that.

"Yeah, she's actually like twenty-two or so, man. You really think someone younger than us could kill people without blinking like she did?" Sun considered that.

"You know, I really didn't think about that…" As Sun contemplated, one of the two other guys with them, the one with the pink in his hair (and dude, seriously? What's up with that?) spoke up.

"Psychotic or sociopathic?" Orion's tone shifted, as if he was holding back a grimace or something. Huh, Sun figured he got along with her; that was fairly insulting.

"She's at least a little twisted in the head, I know that much. How much or in what way, I have no idea. I consider myself lucky that I apparently amuse her on some level so she actively tries to keep me alive if she's nearby. I have no idea if that's good luck or bad though. It's kinda like your relationship with Nora, Ren, only a lot more risky." The remaining man with them, Adam, snorted, shifting the grip on his blade.

"What is with you and violent women? The twins, this Neo chick, Blake…" Orion actually did turn his head at that to glare at Sun's fellow faunus (Sun could tell fairly easy, because he was awesome like that).

"I'm sorry, who volunteered to come to a forest of doom to get away from their pissed off roommate?" Adam scowled.

"Hey, you ran too that first time!" Orion blinked, then shrugged and turned back to the forest.

"Yeah… because I'm not moronic enough to stay near a ticked off woman with a gun-katana in her hand." The impromptu leader paused for a moment, before bringing up his pistol. "We have more company." At his words, the plants seemed to move. Sun sighed, readying his staff.

"More? Jeez, can't we catch a break?" Sun could hear the rustling whatever they were up against was making, but frowned. It didn't sound like the previous foes… Best to warn the others. He opened his mouth to do so, only to let out a shout as a small humanoid figure leaped from the underbrush, a menacing looking blade in hand. Sun swung and knocked it away with a small explosion, before frowning at the creature as it struggled to its feet. About half his height, its skin was entirely black with a tattered idea of clothing hanging off its frame. In its right hand was the sword it had come at him with, but it had no left. The most unnerving part was its face… Or rather, the lack of one, instead being replaced with what seemed to be a mask of blank white with two eyeholes. Adam spoke as Sun's thoughts hit a conclusion. "What the hell, they look like Grimm!"

I cursed in my mind as that nagging feeling of familiarity disappeared at his words. I was so close! I then hastily brought my left hand up and blocked an incoming blade before firing twice into the creature's skull, hurling it back as it bled red blood. I spoke up as well. "They look like it, but they bleed! I don't think they're Grimm, at least not yet!" Sun replied to me as he knocked another way, before rapidly discharging a pair of shells into two more to send them away bleeding heavily.

"The hell does that mean, not yet?! You sure know how to comfort a guy, Orion!" Adam sliced one casually in half as it rushed at him while Ren hit another with an Aura-infused palm strike, sending it away. I frowned as I deflected another blade and stabbed the creature in the mask, before pulling out Caestus and letting it hit the ground. I reached out with my senses carefully, paying attention to our surroundings as well as the incoming menace.

"I can still feel something from them, just really dulled. Let's move up real fast, there's a big clearing up ahead we can hold our ground at against these guys!" So saying, I charged forward, and could feel the others following. Sun was jumping from tree to tree, lashing out with his staff at any that got too close to our little party. Ren wove from side to side, nimbly evading the creatures as we headed for a better place to fight. Adam simply cut into any that got in his way, blood spray flying past as I felt some of it hit me. Finally we burst into the clearing, which was thankfully empty for now. I skidded to a halt and brought my gun to bear as Sun flipped down and landed to my side. Ren took up position my other side, and Adam stood at my back, all of us facing outwards. The creatures began to approach from the forest, causing me to sigh. I emptied the remaining bullets into the crowd before firing once dry, causing me to drop the gun and allow Caestus to form fully on both hands, blades extended. "You're buying me a new shirt Adam." He simply snorted from behind me as our enemies rushed forward.

(Third person omniscient! So everyone plays their part this time.)

Orion lunged forward, deflecting a blade with his left hand before lashing out with his right, cutting across the 'throat' of the creature. It dropped the blade with a clatter, and Orion punted it back towards its friends as he leaned down and grabbed the blade, wielding it in his right hand. He caught the next blade on his appropriated sword, before overpowering the small creature and bringing the blade down and to the right before stabbing with his left hand, gouging one of its eyes. It stumbled back, and Orion shuffled forward and swung, aura channeled through his arm to allow the sword to go right through and bisect the monster, blood spilling to the ground.

Sun's hands were a blur as he relentlessly fired upon the approaching figures. Any that got too close were smoothly knocked aside by his suddenly appearing staff before he seamlessly swapped back to gunchucks and resumed firing. Ren smoothly danced between the creatures, blades cutting into them and occasionally firing upon any grouped together. Adam wasn't even moving from his position, instead simply cutting down any that got close enough with incredibly fast sword strokes. Any he couldn't cut were instead shot with the sheath of the blade, holding his end of the battle easily enough.

The battle continued in this same way for a brief time before they just suddenly stopped. The four men were breathing hard, but were warily scanning the forest. Ren spoke up after a time. "I don't think we're clear yet…" Orion felt a shiver go down his spine as he felt two _massive_ signatures approaching.

"You're right, we have two big ones coming this way!" At the end of his words, two plant-like creatures came away from the trees. They seemed like roses with extra vines, except as big as trucks and pitch black. Roots extended from their main body into the ground, connected to something and digging a trench through it. In the middle of the 'flower' part was a white mask with red markings depicting some sort of sad expression upon it. Orion flipped the blade in his hand to hold it in a reverse-grip as the remaining three lined up next to him.

"Seriously, I think I need to stop leaving cities with you man. You get the worst damn luck." I glared at the monkey for a moment.

"Shut up, Sun." I flipped the blade in my hand again, getting a little bit more comfortable with the weight. "Hey Adam, still picking the forest of doom over Blake?" I could practically feel the bull faunus glaring at me.

"I will punch you, I swear." I snorted in a manner similar to the species he's based off.

"Do it and I'll tell Blake that you picked a forest of doom over her." As he contemplated how to take that, the remaining member of our band spoke up.

"They're getting closer." They were indeed. On the upside, their size made them rather slow, which allowed us time for banter, because talking is not actually a free action. I hefted the blade again, before throwing it end over end at them. It stabbed into the one on the right, sinking decently into it, though it made no noise as it sunk in.

"K. Sun and I are taking that one. Ren, Adam, you take the other one. I think we're gonna have to get creative here guys, so go nuts." That said, I deactivated Caestus and withdrew two heavy pistols, holding one in each hand, before the group split into respective pairs.

**(Sun/Orion vs. Grimm Rose A) **

Orion paused for a moment before whipping out his scroll and taking a picture of the Grimm Rose. Sun just blinked at the action. "Dude, the hell? I thought we were fighting here." The man simply shrugged, pocketing his scroll once more after looking over the picture.

"And Junior's paying us. I should have taken pictures of the other shit we fought, but this is far more interesting. I'm also recording everything we say." Sun blinked, considered. Started snickering.

"You're going to blackmail the fuck out of the bull faunus we have with us, aren't you?" Orion smirked.

"Oh hell yes." The two men turned back to their target, who had gotten closer during their conversation. "I go low, you go high?" The monkey shrugged, swapping his staff to twin gunchucks.

"Seeing as I'm better at with heights…" Orion paused for only a moment to flip Sun off, before activating Caestus on both of his arms and charging forward, blades extended. The Grimm Rose let loose a low-toned roar of sorts from its mask, surprising Orion. _A plant that can make noise? I wonder what else it can do? Shit!_ That last thought was followed by a quick guard with both hands from a vine, causing him to wince at the impact before uncrossing his arms and cutting the vine fairly deeply, though no blood was spilled. The only indication was the empty space between Grimm flesh and fading particles of darkness characteristic to that of the Grimm when injured or killed. Orion whirled into a roundhouse, a technique that would be completely ineffective at this range except he had Opug out. As his leg was directly pointed at the Rose, he triggered it to fire off a shot, causing him to turn rapidly and stomp his foot down hard on the ground, halting his momentum while he could, frowning. _That recoil… definitely something I need to get used to._ He wasn't too worried about being attacked, as A. the Rose was recoiling from the powerful blast, just a little bit, and B. he saw Sun opening up with his gunchucks, twisting and whirling with a barrage of shotgun blasts to hammer at the Rose. Orion started to turn back to the fight-

And then he and Sun, and the Grimm Rose, all froze as the sound of a phone rang, disrupting the battle. Both the Grimm Rose and Sun turned to him as he calmly took out his scroll and opened it up, Sun wearing a blank expression and the Grimm just giving off this aura of doing the same thing. Orion answered the scroll, curious. "Hey Mil." Pause, then a shrug from the man. "Nah, this isn't a bad time."

Sun disagreed. Loudly. "We're fighting a plant of doom, and _you're answering your scroll? __**What is wrong with you?!**_" Orion calmly flipped the monkey faunus off before manipulating a few things on his scroll.

"Ignore him, this thing is ridiculously slow. One sec." Finally, after a few inputs, he closed it and tapped on his ear. Contrary to the story Orion had seen, this variation of Remnant did have devices similar to Bluetooth earpieces for scroll communication. He immediately jumped on that when he found out, as most things he did on a day to day basis required both hands. "Sorry, had to switch you to earpiece." Pause. "Yeah, while it's slow, I still have to actually fight it, as it's trying to kill me." The Grimm Rose chose this moment to roar and swipe a vine at Orion, causing him to duck under it before rolling over another one that came low at him. Sun facepalmed before yelling at his friend.

"**WOULD YOU HANG UP THE PHONE AND HELP ME FIGHT THE GRIMM?**" Orion, in response, pulled out a pistol that looked more like a hand cannon than an actual pistol and fired twice, putting sizable holes in the main body of the creature. Sun sighed exasperatedly before connecting his weapon and rushing it, twirling it to deflect and injure vines sent his way. Orion, meanwhile, was ducking and weaving again, more focused on the conversation with the red Malachite than the actual fight. He fired again, clipping the mask and causing the possessed plant monster to roar in a higher tone.

"What? No, it's fine. Yeah, it's just big, and reluctant to die, but it's not actually injuring us. There are two, but the quiet ones have that one." Pause. "The gunshots? Yeah, it's one of the weapons I borrowed, why?" Orion paused as if listening very intently, quite calmly blocking a vine with an aura infused left arm before firing and severing it from the main body. "It sounds like a hand cannon because it is a hand cannon. Junior gave me free reign of the armory and I abused that." Yet another pause before Orion spoke slowly and carefully. "Nooo, I have no idea why some vials of dust are missing. Why would I? Hold on a moment." Orion ducked under Sun's flying body, which hit the ground just behind him. The monkey faunus had mistimed a jump and been hit by a vine, but he was quickly back on his feet, and was a lot more irritated. Scratch that, Sun was pissed.

"**GET OFF THE DAMN PHONE AND HELP ME KILL THIS FUCKING THING, OPAL! I DON'T CARE IF SHE'S HOT AND HAS A TWIN!**" Orion sighed exasperatedly at Sun's 'Ragekong' moment.

"Look, I'll have to call you back, Sun's getting pissed that I'm not helping more." Another pause. "I'll send you a picture of what it looks like, you'll get a kick. I'm sending it to Junior too, he's paying me." Irritated pause. "What? Really? Fine, whatever, I'll send one to Melanie too." Brief pause. "Yes, but I got the picture before I started fighting. I'll see ya later Mil." Orion tapped his earpiece, ending the call, before side-stepping a vine from overhead to dodge it before stepping on it, holding it down. He casually holstered his hand cannon before pulling out a submachine gun. After checking a small marking on the side, he pointed it at the Rose and emptied the clip at it. The submachine gun, modded with red dust to give it immolation properties, promptly set fire to the Rose, which began roaring again as more and more of its body caught fire. Orion emptied the clip, ejected it from the gun, and calmly reloaded it as the Grimm was consumed by flame. Cocking the gun, he holstered it before stepping away from the vine as it began fading to dark particles. Sun wore a bemused expression as he watched this spectacle.

"You couldn't have done that earlier?" Orion shrugged, walking over to the fading body and pulling out his misappropriated sword.

"It was a lot more durable before we put a number of holes in it. And we're getting paid to investigate this place; knowing how the shit living in it fights is a part of that." The monkey faunus sighed, before looking towards the other pair.

"Well, at least they didn't have any issues."

**(Adam/Ren vs. Grimm Rose B(This is happening at the same time as the other fight, in case you didn't figure that out.))**

The two quiet members of the group gave each other an assessing look, before turning to the Grimm. Adam unsheathed Wilt before transforming Blush to its rifle mode while Ren took aim. The two proceeded to open fire at the massive Grimm, peppering it with small arms fire that seemed only to annoy it. It let out a low-toned roar as it advanced forward, tearing up the earth below it as it came closer. Irritated, Adam flipped Blush back to its sheath as Ren ceased firing as well and took a moment to comment.

"It seems that unlike everything else we've encountered so far, we will require more decisive force to hurt this creature." Adam snorted in a manner similar to the animal he was closest to, sheathing Wilt.

"I noticed, thanks. Let's try cutting." That said, Adam rapidly lashed out with his blade as a vine descended at him, cutting through the Grimm easily and letting the vine fall behind him. Ren whirled, slashing several times into another in the air before landing gracefully, another vine disintegrating behind him. The Rose roared again, recoiling slightly before its mass began to writhe, drawing away the previous two vines to bring forth thicker vines that began to lash out at the pair. Ren ducked and weaved through the undulating appendages while Adam either sidestepped or parried the vines that came at him, holding his ground against the Rose. They both lashed out with their blades whenever they could, making minor or moderate cuts across the vines but never actually fully cutting through. Then all three combatants froze as a ringing went through the clearing. At first their attention turned to the other fight, but when the ringing continued after Orion answered his scroll, they turned their attention to the bull faunus, who himself looked at his scroll. Stabbing his blade into the ground, Adam withdrew his scroll and checked who was calling.

He then quite calmly tapped _ignore_, silenced his scroll, and put it away, withdrawing his blade from the ground and causing Ren to raise an eyebrow at him. The faunus shrugged. "Really, _really_ don't want to deal with that person quite yet. Also, middle of a fight." Ren shrugged in turn, before the two darted forward, blades flashing as they cut into the Grimm Rose, leaving cuts all across it. It seemed to only irritate it however, and it lashed out with a loud roar, causing Ren and Adam to block with their respective blades and be pushed away, digging small trenches in the ground from the force. Adam let out a low grunt while Ren silently jumped to stand next to him, speaking up as Adam twirled his blade.

"We need a new plan. I don't have anything for outright massive damage that won't drain my reserves, and I doubt we're stopping here." Adam's eyes narrowed before he snorted and sheathed his blade, assuming a low stance.

"Buy me time, I got something." Ren merely nodded before rushing in guns blazing. He ducked and weaved through the vines, gracefully whirling with his blades in close and occasionally peppering the Grimm with more bullets, keeping its attention on him. A low pitched roar from the other one seemed to distract it momentarily, which coincided luckily with Adam's call. "Move, now!"

Ren did so, and Adam let out a low chuckle before blurring forward and unleashing his blade, which was glowing with power. A moment passed as he moved _through_ the Grimm Rose, before it gave out a last keening roar and began to disintegrate into red petals and black particles that the Grimm normally split into. Adam let out a sigh before twirling his blade and sheathing it, standing tall as he turned to watch the beast-plant disintegrate. Ren walked over to stand next to him, and the two watched silently as their foe dissipated away.

**(Return to the POV of Orion for the rest of the chapter)**

I shrugged. "It was massive, and had some decent strength, but Ursa are harder to kill. I know Ren has killed Ursa before, and Adam is very good at what he does." Sun glanced at me, but after seeing that I wasn't going to elaborate sighed, before beginning to reload his ammo.

"Whatever man. Everyones Auras still good?" I hummed as I pulled out my scroll and began tapping on the screen. I had had everyone link their scrolls to mine so as to keep track of one another out here, though it didn't much matter this time as Sun and I had worked together before, Ren was perfectly aware of his reserves, and Adam was used to soloing this kind of shit.

"Adam's trick dug into his reserves a decent bit, about a quarter gone. Your reserves also lost about a tenth as well." I frowned. "Sorry, guess I underestimated just how much that hit took from you." Finished with reloading, Sun went through a quick kata to cock his weapons.

"Eh, it's cool, things happen. You did make sense." Adam and Ren had approached us by that time, looking a bit more relaxed. Adam spoke with a bit of humor in his tone as they reached us.

"If that's the worst we're going to have to deal with, I'm not too worried." I shook my head as I closed my scroll.

"Thought the faunus had enhanced senses?" Adam growled at me, but I pointed at the trenches that the Roses had carved through the ground approaching here. "Those things were connected to something deeper. The only reason they faded was because they were taking more damage than it was worth to maintain them, and they were split from the main body." The atmosphere grew solemn as the other three took that information in. "This isn't over yet. Come on, the faster we kill this thing the faster we can get out of here." Ren quirked an eyebrow at me.

"What's stopping us from leaving now?" In response, I jerked a thumb over my shoulder, back the way we had come. In truth, the trees around us had felt almost _empty_ to me, and I had done more than talk to Miltia during her phone call. The trees were being possessed by whatever it was inhabited this forest, and a vast amount of large roots, tinged the same black as the Grimm Roses, blocked our way out. Ren blinked. "Oh."

"Great, so now we're _trapped_ in the giant forest of doom until we kill whatever it is that is manipulating at least 80% of the shit here." Adam let out another low growl. "I fucking hate you Orion." I merely shrugged as Sun laughed at Adam's comment.

"Relax, the four of us are more than competent enough to deal with whatever we come across." I paused for a moment. "Actually, you three are, and I'm carrying enough guns, modded ammo, and explosives on me to make up the difference between my skill level and yours." Adam sighed while Ren checked the ammo count on Stormflower.

"If I die, and you don't, I'm haunting you. If we both die, I'm kicking your ass in the afterlife." I merely gave him a toothy grin.

"And if I die and you don't, I'm not going to haunt you. I'm going to Blake and provoke her into feminine fury whenever you're nearby." Even Ren paled at the thought of _any_ girl becoming like that. Sun commented on the matter neatly.

"Bro, harsh." I shrugged, holstering my SMG and drawing a pair of hand cannons.

"Whatever. I'm tired. Let's go murder a giant plant monster and go home." We all began walking towards where the Roses had come from, warily watching our surroundings. Sun spoke up suddenly.

"Hey, what makes you think it's a giant plant monster?" I gave Sun the blankest look I could possibly muster.

"Oh, no reason in particular."

"Absolutely no reason at all, really."

"I get it, Orion. No need to rub it in my face."

"You sure you get it? I mean, I figured that it was kind of a given, figured you would have pieced it together yourself. I could run you through it?" My voice was at the perfect tone to fit 'sarcastic snarking asshole' as I verbally tore into Sun as we finally came across the 'boss' of the forest, so to speak. A gigantic overgrown abomination of a plant sat in the middle of a large clearing. Several large vines were growing from it, though none were moving as of yet. Several massive roots connected the trees to the plant, so massive they had burst out of the ground, making very uneven terrain. Several Grimm Roses, a total of eight at first count, were scattered about the clearing, along with multiples of the odd humanoid half-Grimms we had fought earlier. Surprisingly, the plant itself wasn't a Grimm, but it seemed to hold the remnants of one bound by roots and vines. A Goliath of all things, a baby one though, about the size of a house originally, was _very_ slowly disappearing, though it seemed that the black particles were being absorbed into the plant abomination. Suddenly it struck me.

"Evil Forest!" I blurted out suddenly as I finally realized why the beasts from earlier seemed so familiar. Then more understanding hit. "Ah… fuck." Adam raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's an evil forest. And?" I shook my head, suddenly very annoyed. And wary.

"Not just any. I knew it seemed familiar, and that abomination in the middle is what sparked the memory. An old tale I know told of a forest so steeped in evil and darkness that the very plants came alive to feed upon all living things. All of the demonic flora were led by an overmind type being, the Plant Brain." I frowned. "It looked a lot different as described the story though. Point is, the plants here are carnivorous, and the biggest offender is this. It must be what spooked the Grimm, and I can see why: it's digesting a baby Goliath for food, and it's corrupting the plants and some of the smaller animals. It isn't being corrupted itself simply because of how evil its very existence is." Adam rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for the history lesson. How do we kill it?" I shrugged.

"The heroes didn't have any particular method honestly, they just kinda kept slashing it. And hitting it with fire. Lots and lots of fire. Also, they only had to fight _it_. We… have to fight its minions too apparently." Sun sighed.

"Don't you have any good news?" I considered that.

"Well, the heroes of the tale lacked guns. And were all around nowhere near as powerful as us, despite their blatant use of magic and swordsmanship. And you know… it's us. Fuck that dying shit, we have way too many people who would drag us out of hell just to kick our asses for dying. Besides, Adam still needs to eventually go home and face Blake, and I seriously want to see that." Adam snorted, readying his weapon.

"Not a chance in hell, jackass." Sun sighed, giving his gunchucks a quick twirl.

"Ladies, ladies, you can fight after we killing the killer plant that scares the soulless walking genocide." Ren aimed Stormflower.

"Any last minute advice?" My eyes narrowed as I brought my pair of hand cannons to bear.

"Yeah, no holding back guys. We kill this thing, hard and fast, or we aren't walking away. Go nuts."

**(Cue whatever you feel is appropriate Boss Battle Music, because here it is!)**

The other three blurred into action, finally showing just how outclassed I still was. Against your average person, I'm more than capable of handling myself, especially with the arsenal I outfitted myself with. Against someone like Junior's Henchmen, I could probably fight a number of them. But Melanie and Miltia, let alone these guys? If they truly got serious, while I could fight, I would inevitably lose. That simple. Sun took to the trees and branches above the battlefield, nimbly moving up high and raining shells down on the Grimm Roses and the main body of the Brain. They were off guard, unprepared for the barrage of bullets that tore into them. Ren was rushing at the small humanoid half-Grimm, tearing into them with his blades and peppering farther away ones with his bullets as he moved from target to target. Adam simply ran around the battlefield, blade whirling as he cut down everything he came across. The half-Grimm were bifurcated easily enough, and he had been paying attention earlier, cutting the Roses down while Sun had them staggered by severing their link to the Brain, causing them to fade.

I rolled my shoulders, before opening up on the Brain with my own hand cannons. Unfortunately, that got its attention rapidly, and I had to jump over a vine before rolling as I hit the ground to avoid another. Most likely because Ren and Adam weren't actually attacking the main body, and Sun was a bit inconvenient to hit at this point in time. On the bright side, it wasn't a Grimm, and it was semi-sentient, so I could feel its Aura, which meant I can feel the vines coming at me. Due its size, I had enough time to dodge it as soon as it swung at me. I felt like I was forgetting something important though...

I ran through the boss fight in my head. Zidane, Steiner, Vivi, Blank showing up halfway through the fight. Weak to fire, spam fire. Boss had physical attacks, blinding pollen, and... a thunder spell that hurt like hell. _Oh fuck._ As I realized this, I felt a build-up of energy from the Brain. Not Aura, but I could easily guess what it was. Not aimed at me, but... shit.

"Sun! _**Move!**_" I bellowed as I felt the energy reach its peak. Sun, not knowing what was about to happen but trusting my judgement, blurred across the branches, narrowly dodging a _bolt of lightning_ from the Brain. He began swearing as that same bolt hit a branch and destroyed where it hit, dropping the branch, one end smoking, to the forest floor.

"Did that piece of crap just shoot fucking _lightning_ at me?!" I fired again with the hand cannon in my right hand, then twice more before holstering it as its clip ran out.

"Yes!" Off to the side, an irritated Adam ducked a vine before disconnecting another Rose, allowing Ren to kill it with a whirling barrage of blades and bullets. He snarled as he turned to the Brain.

"How the hell does a plant shoot _lightning_?" I dodged one of the Brain's vines before firing at it twice with my cannon, leaving two gaping holes in it. Adam took immediate advantage and severed the vine with another iai blow. I fired another time at the Brain before dropping the empty ammo clip.

"Magic!" I roared out as I reloaded, firing at a half-Grimm that got too close, leaving a bloody hole in its head as its toppled to the ground. "Legitimate fucking magic!" To my left, Ren slammed a palm strike into a vine, pushing it away with the Aura infused blow.

"Many ancient cultures, unknowing, referred to Aura and its uses as magic when first discovered." I gave him an annoyed look as I pointed my cannon at the Brain.

"Ren." **BOOM! **"I can sense Aura." **BOOM! **"And other forms of metaphysical or supernatural energy." **BOOM! **"I can guaran-damn-tee you." **BOOM! **"That was not Aura." I shifted my aim slightly and fired the last shot in the clip, hitting a vine as it swung at Adam. Adam in turn severed it, causing the Brain to let out a low moan of pain. I felt energy, mana, building up again and swore as it was a lot more than before. "Everyone, incoming at us all!"

Sun immediately moved to put a branch in between him and the Brain. Adam and Ren both assumed stances, most likely to dodge on command. And then I realized I didn't have anything to prevent the attack myself. _Shit, shit, shi- wait._ I looked at the empty gun in my hand. I sighed as I felt the energy peak.

"Only chance..." I reared back my arm and threw the gun between me and the Brain right as it fired. I watched as one bolt hit my gun, blocking the attack. Another struck the branch Sun was hiding at, right as he moved to another. Ren, with perfect timing, sidestepped the bolt as it crashed into a tree behind him. And Adam... partially unsheathed his sword and absorbed the attack? _Oh yeah, he can do that._ And then I realized that my cannon was still sparking dangerously, causing me to pale as I activated Caestus and brought them in front of my face, bringing up my Aura as well. "Oh shi-"

_**KABOOOM!**_

I was sent flying into the air, and I could feel the damned plant taking advantage of my aerial status to lash out with a massive vine. I twisted as best as I could, blocking the blow with Aura and my gauntlets, but still redirected in my flight path. _It's alright, I blocked it-__**WHAM.**_ I let out a cry of pain as I slammed into a tree at a pretty decent velocity, pain reverberating through me. I bounced off and hit the ground with a groan, carefully feeling out the damage with my Aura as it began gathering around my injury. _Yep. Yep, that was my ribs, alright. Ooow…_ I looked up as I felt more build-up of energy, and saw the Brain was gathering mana again, for a bolt aimed at… of course, me, with metal gauntlets on. "Fuck."

Light seemed to fade out for a moment, before a massive slash wound appeared on the abomination. I blinked as it let out a howl of pain, before the bolt intended for me fired instead at the one who hurt it, who simply absorbed the bolt and unleashed another blow, leaving crossing wounds upon the plants body. Adam staggered back, panting, as the beast howled again, vines lashing around it. "Hit it now, it's open!"

So it was. Those cuts were deep in its body, leaving in vulnerable. Unfortunately, I couldn't take advantage due to my positioning. The others, however… I drew myself to my feet, ignoring the flash of pain in my ribs before my Aura settled into working on them. "Ren! Sun! Heads up!" So saying, I drew two grenades from my jacket, primed them, and then threw them, one at each teammate.

Sun jumped from his branch and smacked his straight down where the slash wounds met. "Alright!"

Ren spun and kicked his grenade, landing it right next to Sun's with perfect precision. "Done."

I let out a yell as the internal timers clicked down to zero on the grenades. "Time this ends, bastard!"

_**KA-KABOOOOOM!**_

**(End Music.)**

Fire engulfed the Plant Brain from within, causing it let out cries as it thrashed about blindly as the fire ate into it from inside. Soon enough, it ceased writhing, signifying the end of its death throes. I let out a sigh as I stumbled back to the nearest tree and leaned against it, wincing, while my Aura went to work solely focused upon my injury. Adam and Ren approached me while Sun dropped down from his perch, all mainly uninjured. Sun was the one to speak up, a flash of concern briefly on his face.

"Hey, you alright man?" I waved him off as I concentrated more Aura.

"I will be in a moment, lucky hit during that multiple lightning blast." Ren gave a solemn nod.

"It's fortunate you remembered in time that it shot electricity. While it wouldn't affect our weaponry, it could still easily debilitate us." I gave an owlish blink at him.

"Wait, really? But my pistol blew up." Ren shrugged.

"Most common weaponry you could buy in a store or acquire through… slightly less scrupulous means are not, as it is a rather uncommon thing to face. Weaponry designed by Huntsmen, or those in training to be a Huntsman, however, are generally made to prevent damage, just in case." Adam spoke next, rolling his shoulders.

"Most higher-ups of militaristic organizations, such as Junior's crew or the White Fang are like that, as well as the better mercenaries for hire or assassins." Hence explaining why his was protected, as I could infer the other two as Hunstmen in training. Qrow… hadn't told me that, or set up my weaponry like that either. I scowled. _I'm going to throw a chair at him._ My scowl deepened as I remembered the other reason I hated this forest in the game.

**(Cue FFIX-Run)**

"Fuck." I received worried looks from the others as I levered myself to a stand, grimacing at the spike of pain that, while lessened, still existed. "We need to get out of here. Now." Sun spoke up.

"Why?" I rolled my shoulders, before drawing my shotgun, cocking it.

"I remembered the other reason this place was call Evil Forest. It had a sort bio-magical failsafe that would petrify absolutely everything in the forest, and the forest itself." I received confused blinks, causing me to roll my eyes as I prepared to haul ass as fast as I could back to the truck. "Essentially, in about twenty seconds, everything in this clearing is going to turn to stone, then it's going to spread to the rest of the forest. We need to be gone. Now." Adam summed up the group's reaction as they all took stances.

"Fuck this entire damn place." With that, we took off. Sun bounced between being on the ground and up in the trees, using airtime to constantly avoid the roots and uneven terrain we ran across. Ren simply wall-ran across trees when the roots ducked too low for him to maintain a steady pace. Adam sprinted, body low, and easily leaped from giant root to giant root. As for me, I pumped Aura into my legs and simply ground-pounded regardless of slope, firing Opug to clear any of the roots I couldn't run up or down across. Suddenly, a spider-like plant jumped in my way, only to be blown apart as I fired my shotgun at it. I snorted. These things got slaughtered by low-level RPG characters with knives and swords, they wouldn't stand much of a chance against guns, especially a shotgun at point blank. I calmly pumped the gun as I continued running, dropping the empty shell far behind me.

"Watch the plant spiders, just cut right through them or go around, we don't have time to stop." They did as instructed, Ren and Sun simply bounding around any that appeared in front of them while Adam bifurcated straight through any that appeared without losing stride. We ran through the second clearing we had passed, and without slowing a bit I reached down with my left arm and scooped up the blade I had stabbed the Grimm Rose with, holstering it where I had my shotgun before. Hey, trophies are important, as are the records of this entire incident. Hopefully one of them got a picture of the damn Plant Brain before we started fighting it, or at least before we blew the damn thing up with lots and lots of fire. We kept running as I felt the forest's spiders stir behind us and gather, and soon we could literally hear them stampeding.

"Orion…" Adam let out warningly as he heard them first as we tore through the forest. I simply looked for the best place to jump from.

"Just keep running." That said, the next high root I came across I ran to the top of and jumped, firing Opug below me to get even more time. I twisted, so as to bring my body parallel to the ground, face-up, before pointing my shotgun at the oncoming horde along with my feet. Timing carefully, I fired all three guns at once, causing massive recoil and for a few spiderlings to collapse entirely while others staggered, injured, slowing the horde nearest to us while sending me flying at a fairly decent clip. I pumped the gun. then fired again, then again, using my momentum and the recoil to keep myself airborne and just bypassing all of the obstacles all together. Finally I could feel the forest's presence begin to fade, and with one more shot I flew free, rolling backwards before ending on one knee, shotgun braced to my shoulder as I aimed into the forest. Sun came out next, launching from a branch to fly over me and roll across the ground. Ren and Adam exited at the same time, both also jumping from a vine that suddenly blurred into their way but was easily clearing. I waited for a moment, watching the onrushing petrification before one last spiderling leapt from the forest, only to be obliterated by my shotgun and its body sent flying back to the forest, which fully petrified. Then there was silence, aside from me pumping the gun again to release the empty shell while the other three panted heavily.

"I… am never going… anywhere…. with you… ever again," Sun managed between pants, sounding very irritated. Ren remained silent aside from trying to regain oxygen as fast as possible. Adam was the last one to voice his thoughts as he lay on the ground from where he had jumped, not bothering to get up yet.

"I am now regretting following you into a forest of doom instead of simply getting my ass beat by Blake. Not worth it anymore." Finally I stood and started walking to the truck.

"Yeah, well, I got good news and bad news. The good news is, we don't have to deal with this godforsaken place anymore." There was silence as the three gratefully took that in while I hopped into the back of the truck, before Ren spoke up finally.

"And the bad news?" I rummaged around in the back before pulling out ammo for the shotgun that I quite calmly began to load into it.

"Well, we either killed whatever was spooking the Grimm, or we petrified it if we didn't come across it. Either way, nothing is scaring the Grimm. Which means…" Ren put it together first, and I'm fairly sure if he wasn't an ultra-cultured guy he would have swore.

"That nothing is keeping the Grimm away from here, and us." Adam rose his head for one moment to glare balefully at me, before slamming it back down into the ground.

"Fuuuuuuucckkk."

**AN: And end! I am sooooo sorry it took so long! I got super busy with real life things that be important. This chapter though also went longer than I expected. Not counting the Author's Note or the Reader Response Corner, it is roughly 9.4k words of story. Uhm, thoughts:**

**Evil Forest: Yep, I transplanted the Forest. I felt that something that evil would fit in nicely with the whole "the grand majority of the planet wants to kill us" thing. No worries, we'll be coming back to it later, it's not just something throwaway. Cookies to those who recognized it was from FFIX before getting to this. As a side note, I do not own Evil Forest or FFIX. **

**As to why it was fairly easy? Because a bunch of RPG characters at level 5-6 tore through it with ease (if you knew what you were doing). RPG characters without guns. Now, I'm not one to toot my own horn, or that of my OC's, but Orion is a damn sight stronger than a level 5 RPG character, not even counting the veritable arsenal of weaponry he got from Junior. Ren, Sun, and Adam are a few steps above him, making them even stronger. **

**Lightning in Remnant: Ah yes. As explained by Ren earlier, lightning isn't exactly a common element to be hit with in a fight, compared to raw dust, fire, or ice. Thus, most common arms aren't protected by it. Personally crafted weaponry (IE weaponry belonging to anyone that's worth a damn) is protected against it, just because of the weird shit Hunters see on a regular basis. Except Orion's, but that'll be fixed here shortly. You're going to see a lot of Orion regularly abusing this little facet of Remnant.**

**Bluetooth: Ok, I'm going to make this simple. They have unmanned war mechs, but Remnant doesn't have headset stuff like a bluetooth for the scrolls? Yeah… no.**

**Anything else… I can't think of worth commenting. **

**Please please send me your questions! Either through PM or via reviews, and I will do my absolute best to answer them! There are no stupid questions, and asking actually helps me think about what I want to do next, as well as better explain my decisions so far.**

**Hmm…. As a little apology, however, a sneak peek into a future chapter! Not the next one.**

"Should've figured this was coming." I spoke calmly, with my hands in my pockets, as I observed the people in front of me. Seven of them in a row, they all wore the masks of the White Fang, and I knew they weren't just fakers, they were all faunus. Three on each side of the man in the middle held rifles, all pointed at me. The man in the middle was massive, twice the size of a normal man, and held a chainsaw in his right hand. The White Fang Lieutenant, as I knew him by. I didn't even bother looking down, as I could easily see three red lights from the balcony, all pointed right at me. Snipers, oh joy. "After all, I was helping one of your men defect. I really doubt you would be too thrilled with that." The Lieutenant growled, stepping forward.

"Where is the traitor?" I shrugged, hands still casually in my pockets.

"Hell if I know. I told them specifically to not tell me where they were going, or which airship they were even taking." The docks I stood at were able to hold ten airships, and five of them had just left with my friend inside one of them, all heading to different destinations. "Far as I'm concerned, so long as no one knows where they're heading, they'll be safe." The Lieutenant growled again, louder, clearly agitated.

"You're remarkably calm for a man about to die, as we apparently have no use for you alive." I raised an eyebrow as I slowly withdrew my hand from my pocket.

"Well, there's two reasons for that. The first is this little thing here. It's called a flashbang. It lets out enough light and sound to debilitate humans. What do you think it'll do to you?" The faunus, having heightened senses, were amazing trackers. However, if you pieced together how to use those senses against them…

The Lieutenant snorted. "We have enough firepower aimed in your direction that even if you set that off, you'd still be killed by the onslaught of bullets."

"Which leads me to my second reason, which is more of a question to you honestly." At my words, my expression morphed into what could be seen as the greatest "are you stupid?" look ever. "How stupid do you think I am to do something like this without any backup?"

The lights disappeared from my chest, signifying the snipers going down. A second after that, my body shattered as if glass, disappearing from the White Fang arrayed on the ground. They all only saw one thing. The flashbang.

Primed and five feet away from them, hanging in the air.

**That's right! I'm helping someone defect from the terrorists! I wonder who… This'll be some time later in the story, but be assured, it it is happening. Why?**

**Because, contrary to how I responded to your reviews, I actually took a look at the poll itself. And it's **_**overwhelmingly**_** in favor of going my own path. So, canon is now no longer happening. To anyone who wanted to see canon happening… Sorry, but you were outvoted.**

**EDIT: Reuploaded, as Veil has actually been able to proofread.**

**So! Read! Review! Ask any questions you may have so I may answer!**


	21. Chapter 21

**RRC: I answer any and all questions! Or comments. Or anything that isn't blatant flaming. (There is a difference between flaming and criticism: I accept the latter to help me improve, the former will be ignored and possibly reported if you irritate me enough.)**

**That's right, you're not seeing things. This is, indeed, a DOUBLE UPDATE! Because the idea wouldn't leave me alone, so for the past 3 days, as I knew I would have to put this up soon after the previous chapter, due to it's nature, I wrote this chapter. On my phone. That's right, I wrote an 8k+ chapter on my phone in three days. I bask in your awe. On with the story!**

**Intermission **

**(Alternatively, Spotlight off Orion)**

Yang sighed as her teacher droned on. It was History, a class she relatively hated, but after a lecture from her most recent roommate, she began paying more attention to it, as according to him, there truly was a lot to be learned from the past, even the mistakes. Past tactics that worked against opponents, both human/faunus or Grimm, tactics that shouldn't ever be repeated, why certain people are forever ingrained in their memory. After more than a few talks with her enigmatic at times new friend, Yang was learning that there was a lot of things she wasn't actually paying attention to.

Speaking of him… Yang's new friend has rather seamlessly adjusted into life in a new world he, quite literally, fell into. While he was at first a touch odd and obviously ignorant of Remnant (he wasn't uneducated by any means, simply uneducated about _Remnant_ specifically), he adapted well, picking his roommates brains for any and all information while quickly finding a place to earn money for a living so as to avoid, in his words, "mooching off you guys as you've already done plenty". Working at Tukson's wasn't too bad for him, as it allowed him access to a lot of information in his downtime. He also seamlessly adjusted to how big combat was stressed, allowing Yang to unlock his Aura and picking up a fighting style as best as he could with Qrow's teachings. While he still wasn't a match for Yang or even Ruby, he was learning quickly, proving able to hold his own against an average untrained brawler without much trouble. He admittedly made up a lot of his lack of combat expertise with sheer versatility, choosing not to specialize in any one weapon and focusing on their weak points.

Yang scowled as a memory hit her. One day during a spar against him, Orion had taken to barraging her with kicks, generally aimed at her legs or lower torso. Yang had won, but only after taking a powerful blow to her stomach when Orion used his greaves' recoil to slam a knee into it, and doing enough damage to cause her Semblance to activate and give her a strength boost she didn't hesitate in using at the time. Afterwards, while she apologized for going berserk and cracking a few of his ribs, he had waved it off and then pointed out that until her Semblance kicked in he was essentially using her as a soccer ball. Essentially, he had found a weakness, and rather than just telling her he had proved that weakness in her style, which was kick-heavy styles were not her friends. She had a bad habit of not watching her opponent's legs as much as she should especially, as he also pointed out, footwork determined where a body would go, which _was_ important as she needed to pay attention to where her opponent might dodge to hit them.

Yang wasn't the only one Orion sought to improve. After finding out that without Crescent Rose Ruby was essentially relatively defenseless, he had taken to showing the young girl how to fight with her hands and feet. After some limited success (and a lot of arguing over why it was necessary), he had gotten exasperated and asked why she used such an unwieldy weapon as a scythe. After being explained that Qrow was the only one with the patience to teach her a weapon, he then went on to ask why he hadn't taught her anything else. Apparently, while Ruby was technically a prodigy in combat, she needed to get over a stumbling block of "how am I supposed to use this", as while she had a good amount of information on various weaponry, she couldn't actually apply it. Well, before she couldn't; after being taken under Qrow's wing, she felt relatively confident with other weapons, but was far more comfortable with her baby. When asked for the reason for _that_, Ruby admitted it was because she had absolute knowledge of it's inner workings, since she had built the damn thing, made her markedly more comfortable with it than anything else.

After slamming his head into the wall a few times at finding out how easy the damn breakthrough was, he then pointed her at several biology books. Not the Grimm biology she normally read for her schooling, but _human_ biology. He also told her to go watch several unarmed fights on Dustnet (because tournaments were actually fairly common) or look up records of similar fights at her school. Finally, after sending Ruby on her way with all sorts of ideas, he had taken Yang aside and bluntly told her that Ruby needed to understand _her own body_ in order to start learning how to fight without a weapon. Which essentially meant Ruby needed to explore herself, something that was under the line of "_I am not telling Ruby that, my soul would be forever scarred, as would hers"_ for him. Qrow wouldn't be a good choice either, as despite their close relationship, that would've been really _really _awkward. So it fell to big sis Yang, who was both a woman, closer to her age, and also a specialist in hand-to-hand, to do said informing.

Yang suppressed a blush of embarrassment at that memory. _That_ had been a very awkward conversation, but they had gotten through it, and Ruby was now, somewhat, learning how to defend herself without Crescent Rose. Orion had taken up the habit of having Qrow record his spars with Yang, as both relied on unarmed combat, and having Qrow and Yang on opposite sides of the yard recording lessons with Ruby, so as to give Ruby more material to work with. She still hadn't decided on a specific style to learn, as Orion's own personal brawling/freestyle he used was pretty much useless for anyone else as it was heavily based on his own knowledge and instincts, and unfortunately she couldn't learn the same style as her beloved big sis as she had a completely different body type. Plus, while Yang's Semblance lended itself to landing and taking very hard blows, Ruby's was more suited to a more speed-based style that they had yet to determine, though Orion had Yang shook herself out of her memories as her teacher spoke up.

"Miss Xiao Long? Would you be willing to answer a question for a class instead of daydreaming?" Yang suppressed another blush of embarrassment at being called out like that, but smiled cheekily at the teacher.

"Sure thing Teach! Hit me!" The teacher seemed to be considering letting out a long suffering sigh, but had decided against it.

"Very well. As you know, we're briefly covering the Faunus Rights Revolution. Could you perhaps tell me why General Lagune, despite having a much larger voice, was defeated easily by the Faunus during the Battle of Fort Castle?" Fortunately, Yang had studied this before, as she had grown curious about why Orion had so much respect for the faunus.

"The Faunus have enhanced senses, most notably near-perfect night vision and enhanced hearing. General Lagune attempted an attack at night, hoping to disadvantage his foes but instead gave his own forces a massive disadvantage they would have to deal with, leading to the loss of the Human Army and the turning point of the war." The teacher blinked, apparently not expecting her to know the answer as she had been admittedly daydreaming throughout the class since it _started_ and it was known she had little fondness for the subject.

"Ah… Yes, that is correct and quite detailed. Very good Miss Xiao Long, it seems you've actually started paying attention to the subject." He then went back to lecturing the class, his voice droning on as Yang inevitably tuned him out again.

Orion did have an interest in the Faunus, as they didn't exist in his own world. Oh sure, similar beings were spoken of, but generally in folklore or mythology or fantasy tales, not anything in real life. He also had little patience for the discrimination of the faunus, and was quick to show it. They had gone out shopping once for groceries and Orion had watched as a store owner overcharged a pair of young faunus children. After they had left, without the groceries as they didn't have the funds to buy them at the "discriminatory" price, Orion had stepped in and purchased all of the food they had been looking for, as well as a few things of candy. After purchasing his items, he then proceeded to deck the shopkeep in the face and send him flying through a door into the backroom, evidently crashing into things judging by the noises made when he had done so. Walking out, Orion quickly caught up the the children and gave them the groceries and candy. After sending the now cheerful pair on their way with an advisement of never going to that store again, Yang had questioned him.

**Flashback! Again!**

_Orion waved at the children as they practically skipped on their way home, overjoyed that they had gotten the food they had been sent to get. Yang was leaning against the wall with a warm smile as she watched on. Finally they disappeared from sight and Orion dropped his arm, cracking his neck._

"_That was nice. Still tempted to go punch that guy again." Yang straightened and lightly socked him in the shoulder._

"_Pretty sure you're already banned and he'll call the police if you did." Orion snorted; he made it quite clear that he had absolutely no respect for the Vale police force after a bit of research, simply because of how incompetent they were._

"_Mah, I'm fairly sure I can get another good punch in before the police got here. Whatever. Come on Yang, let's go find a different store, I wouldn't shop there anyway." Yang merely shrugged, falling into step beside him as they started walking for the next closest store. _

"_So hey, you seem really against discrimination. I know you explained before, but I feel like you still aren't telling me something." Orion blinked, processing her question, before shrugging._

"_Probably because I haven't explained my most simple reason. There are no two people in the world that are alike-" He paused, considered. "Ok, there might be another me, but that doesn't count as I have alternate universe shenanigans to blame." Yang giggled at that. "Anyway, aside from me being odd, everyone is different. The faunus are just more blatantly so than most. Your average reaction to people is to treat them them differently depending on who you're talking to." Yang tilted her head, ceasing her giggling._

"_Really?" Orion shrugged._

"_Do you treat me and Ruby the same?" Yang didn't even have to consider. While Orion was a surprisingly close friend, despite how short of a time she has known him, she does treat him drastically differently compared to her beloved little sis. That was just common sense though._

"_Point taken." Orion nodded._

"_Different, however, does not mean bad. Unless you have brain damage that causes you to act harshly to someone because of their differences, there is no real reason to treat someone badly simply because they aren't like you. That simple."_

**End Flashback!**

Yang took that view to heart, as she felt somewhat similar. Somewhat, except for replace "all are different" with "all have some things in common", but it was close enough that Yang could understand where Orion was coming from.

The bell rang, and she stretched briefly in her seat before gathering up her stuff. As she left for the next next class, she wondered what exactly Orion had gotten himself into today…

* * *

Miltia hummed a nameless tune under her breath as she sat by the bar, watching Junior's men move about various crates from their most recent shipment. While Tony and Kuma were perfectly capable of supervising it, Melanie and Miltia were tasked to double check the delivery. After the fiasco in Vacuo with Opal, what the really bad information leading to an almost disaster, Junior became a little paranoid about his sources of both information and supplies, and now fervently double-checked any shipment or received confirmation on any lead from multiple sources. His fervor would wear away eventually; in the meantime, it was something simple for the twins to do to kill time. Melanie was watching the men unload the truck, making sure they received the right amount of crates. Once that was done, Miltia would assist in the actual checking of the contents, to ensure nobody attempted to rip Junior off.

Miltia huffed as the bartender, who decided to spend the day reorganizing the bar, placed a drink in front of her quietly before returning to his work. She was still somewhat at odds with her twin over the young man who had recently appeared in their, and Junior's, lives. While he had admittedly given a bad first impression, that was partially Melanie's fault, and really bad timing. How was he supposed to know the two _really_ didn't want to be disturbed then? Unfortunately, Melanie was always one to hold a grudge, and continued to act hostile and aggressive since to the young man, who was perfectly willing to act… not so much negatively but perfectly willing to rile the twin up in return for her hostility. Junior had had to replace a few bits of furniture due to their antics, but didn't entirely mind as it provided (relatively) cheap entertainment.

Miltia honestly had no problem with the man, and actually was somewhat fond of Opal. When he had realized that Miltia was perfectly willing to be civil with him despite their bad first encounter, he had immediately apologized over it, despite it being more Melanie's fault than his. After that, he freely chatted with her, uncaring of her twin who normally stole the spotlight and her own quiet nature, perfectly willing to hold up a conversation with only her normal one-word answers or small nonverbal cues. She then developed a light blush as she remembered their conversation at the bookstore. After finding out that she was rarely complimented, even by her coworkers, he had torn into them, pointing out that just because she was scary (to them, he had absolutely no fear of her or her sister), that didn't mean she didn't like to be appreciated. It meant a lot to her, especially considering that most of the time she was hit on people who were drunk so had their perceptions altered.

That incident, and the time that he willingly risked himself in Vacuo to save both her and her sister, had cemented that Opal was, at the very least, a friend to her, and one she could trust. She had began to open up more, willing to actually talk around him, and found that he was a decent conversationalist even when he wasn't doing all the talking. He freely complimented her, not with any desire to flirt, but because it was his honest opinion and he knew that due to her nature she received less attention than her twin. It was… nice, if she was to be honest. Actually, maybe he wasn't too busy, she certainly had time to kill. She pulled out her scroll and dialed his. After a few moments, it connected.

"_Hey Mil."_ Ah yes, his nickname for her. While Miltia in itself was a nickname, Opal developed his own for her, saying that it suited her better. She was amused with it and saw no reason to make him stop calling her it.

"Hey Opal. This isn't a bad time is it? I know you're doing that thing for Junior." Opal shrugged through the video.

"_Nah this isn't a bad time."_ Another voice spoke up in the background, one she recognized as the monkey faunus they had met back in Vacuo.

"_We're fighting a plant of doom, and you're answering your scroll? __**What is wrong with you?!**__"_ Plant of doom? Really? Opal made a gesture off-screen before beginning to mess with his scroll below the camera while she fought to restrain a giggle at their antics.

"_Ignore him, this thing is ridiculously slow. One sec." _After a few moments, his image disappeared, though he was still connected. _"Sorry, had to switch you to earpiece."_

Miltia raised an unseen eyebrow. "'Plant of doom'? And you actually have to use your hands against it?"

"_Yeah, while it's slow, I still have to actually fight it, as it's trying to kill me."_ She heard a dull roar and the sound of movement before she could hear the monkey screaming again at him.

"_**WOULD YOU HANG UP THE PHONE AND HELP ME FIGHT THE GRIMM?**__"_ A brief moment after his shout she heard dual reports of a gun going off, rather loudly. Miltia's expression shifted to one of slight concern, though few would be able to tell.

"Do you need me to call you back later? You sound kind of busy." More sounds of movement, and another gunshot, followed by another dull roar, similar to one earlier.

"_What? No, it's fine. Yeah, it's just big, and reluctant to die, but it's not actually injuring us. There are two, but the quiet ones have that one."_ She assumed by quiet ones he meant the other pair that had gone with them. Well, he didn't sound overly worried, so it was probably under control. However…

"I know you don't carry a gun, so are those shots something Junior loaned you?" While Orion had been given semi-free access, she wasn't entirely sure what all he had grabbed from the Bear's armory.

"_The gunshots? Yeah, it's one of the weapons I borrowed, why?"_ She tilted her head slightly in thought. They sounded like one of their heavier pistols that no one actually used due to the recoil messing with people.

"Because it sounds like a hand cannon, which is highly restricted even for the crew."

"_It sounds like a hand cannon because it is a hand cannon. Junior gave me free reign of the armory and I abused that." _Evidently. Actually, Miltia had gone in there earlier after they had left and noticed something. Her eyes narrowed.

"Would you happen to know why there are several vials of dust missing from the armory?" A pause on his end before he slowly replied back.

"_Nooo, I have no idea why some vials of dust are missing. Why would I? Hold on a moment."_ More sounds of movement, and as Miltia was about to press her earlier question she heard Sun damn near screaming his head off.

"_**GET OFF THE DAMN PHONE AND HELP ME KILL THIS FUCKING THING, OPAL! I DON'T CARE IF SHE'S HOT AND HAS A TWIN!**__"_ Quite the lungs he has on him, she would admit that much. She heard Opal's exasperated sigh at his companion's antics.

"_Look, I'll have to call you back, Sun's getting pissed that I'm not helping more."_ Miltia stopped herself from nodding, as there wasn't any point if he couldn't see her.

"That's fine. You'll have to tell me all about what it is that you're fighting later though."

"_I'll send you a picture of what it looks like, you'll get a kick. I'm sending it to Junior too, he's paying me."_

Miltia raised one of her eyebrows imperceptibly. "And send one to Melanie. She'll bitch about it later if you don't."

"_What? Really? Fine, whatever, I'll send one to Melanie too." _Oh good then. Wait a minute… Wasn't he fighting a Grimm?

"Don't Grimm dissolve on death?" He quickly answered, apparently needing to deal with said Grimm.

"_Yes, but I got the picture before I started fighting. I'll see ya later Mil."_ With that the call disconnected as Opal hung up, apparently to deal with the problem. Miltia put away her scroll and sipped at her drink, contemplative.

He had done more than interfere on hers and her twin's lives. He had given Junior quite a bit of advice. Aside from the name of the club (the twins still teased Junior for not coming up with the name himself), he had made seemingly offhand comments that Junior paid attention to. One of them was the fact that assault weaponry were far more intimidating than handheld firearms, and so better at keeping order in the club with less action. Opal had been drinking at the time, so when he was told that they didn't want to step on the police force's toes, he almost lost his drink from laughing. When he finally recovered, he had a fairly eloquent response.

_"The Vale police force are the single most incompetent organization I have ever seen. The fact that your organization exists so blatantly and the fact that Neo resides in this city is more than enough proof, along with my semi-constant cases of assault against racists. The only people you should ever reason to worry about are Huntsmen, and I guaran-damn-tee you that a few assault rifles is not going to amount to much if you actually piss them off to the point that they ignore your usefulness."_

After that little tirade, Junior had taken the advice to heart. Now all the men excluding Tony who preferred his blades, had an assault weapon on their person along with a side-arm. As well, only those who actually had a modicum of skill with melee weaponry actually carried anything beyond a personal knife, another change inspired by Opal. Because of the new armament of the men and the twins own reputation, the only people who would start trouble were either drunks, morons, or people who are prepared to deal with the consequences of their actions. The first two probably wouldn't need anything beyond numbers to deal with; the latter would be singularly unconcerned with untrained fighters swinging weapons they don't entirely know how to use.

That... was a lot more embarrassing to be proved. When Junior had called him on it, Opal had told him he would bring someone the next day. The person he brought along was the blonde from before, his roommate Yang. She was a fairly cheerful sort for someone who was about to get into a fight with multiple people. Calling it a fight would be a compliment however. The attractive blonde _laid waste_ to the men, the only person even remotely standing a chance was Tony, who barely was able to keep her on the defensive for about half a minute. Then he had accidentally cut a very small bit of her hair.

Miltia winced as the memory crossed her mind. The girl, upon seeing her apparently precious hot falling from her head, had gone into a berserk rage and _mercilessly_ beat eight shades of shit out of him. The only she had stopped was because her roommate had intervened and dragged her away from the groaning bruised mass that was their bouncer. It took him three days to recover from that beat down, and he was still wary of the teen, regardless of her later apology and generally upbeat attitude.

So after that, the only ones carrying swords or axes were those who could _use_ said swords or axes. And all of them trained, too. Not to the same extent as the twins or Opal seemed to, but they did more than just merely rely on whatever natural talent they may have. Opal had yet to give any combat advice to Miltia herself yet, but she assumed he was leery of doing until he was on better terms with her sister, as the two trained together and he had enough difficulty handling Melanie as it was.

Sighing, Miltia chased away her thoughts by downing her drink and standing up. _Time to check on those crates._ Melanie had walked in behind the last one and it wouldn't do to keep her much beloved sister waiting, regardless of their minor disagreement over Opal. If they finished fast enough, maybe they could get some time alone...

* * *

Water rained down upon a small figure in a shower, a melody being hummed by the occupant. Colorful images of animals danced around her as she cleaned herself, enjoying the hot water. While Neo acted mute around others, she was perfectly capable of speech, and when all alone as she was now she freely used her voice, knowing no one would hear. Truth was, she acted mute because it amused her, and watching people struggle to understand her was entertaining, though occasionally frustrating.

Neo knew perfectly well she had a bit of an abnormal mind state. Aside from certain people who had caught her interest, she had little care for the lives or even feelings of others. She freely caused pain to others when she felt like it, and enjoyed it more often than not. She acted oddly because she found people's reactions amusing to her actions, and she viewed as sex as something to merely pass the time if she developed an interest in someone, regardless of their gender. She had even had multiple partners before, simply out of curiosity. Though that time with the twins was quite enjoyable...

Almost everything Neo did was to stave off boredom. Even now, abusing her Semblance to craft colorful images to accompany her humming that only she would see and hear was an attempt to prevent being bored. Neo hated being bored, and generally got a bit more violent around others whenever she was. While she didn't care about the pain she inflicted, it was sometimes inconvenient when people actively avoided her, so she attempted other methods of entertainment so as to avoid lashing out. People who caught her interest were ones who were unique in some way from the rest of the world, and promised something new and entertaining for a while, which was the other reason she slept with the incestuous twins. Their relationship would be frowned upon if it was common knowledge, but they pursued it anyway, which intrigued the ice cream loving girl. And so she pestered them and acted out around them, until finally she grew bored and wandered away to find someone new.

Neo's humming melody became brighter as a person formed in front of her from her Semblance. Shortly after she grew bored with the Malachites she had gone shopping to pick up a new throwaway Scroll. While she had a personal one, the number to that one was shared with a very select people, and others (employers) has to contact her via a "burner" Scroll. There she had met an intriguing young man who could understand her unique communication method _perfectly_! It wasn't a mastery of human body language or a form of mind-reading, but apparently it was his unique ability to sense others helping to fill in the blanks left from her nonverbal cues and her use of Semblance to communicate her thoughts. Neo found that fascinating, quite honestly, and after finding out that the young man who introduced himself as Opal worked for one of the White Fang suppliers and was also receiving training in combat by a Huntsman, her curiosity grew. She had inquired with Junior about her new acquaintance, as Junior generally knew everything worth knowing, and the results of her inquiry made her even more curious.

Junior knew the man, but despite how freely Opal, or Orion as his name turned out to actually be, talked, very little was known about him. He had an odd group of individuals he stayed in touch with apparently, which only grew with time, and while his common habits were known, such as his job or who his roommates were (the identity of whom served as a deterrent for Neo to pester him at his home; not even she would willingly provoke _Qrow the Reaper_), anything of his past beyond the day Tukson hired him was completely unknown. He had no family name, nor any indication of a family, no friends from before, no town of origin, nothing. There weren't even governmental records on the man! He seemed to appear out of thin air and seamlessly inserted himself into other's life without pause, fitting in with the people he interacted with as easily as breathing.

Neo became fascinated with the man in general, and arranged for Junior to hire him out for a trip to Vacuo, away from his comfort zone of Vale, so she could attempt to learn more about him. After agreeing to keep him alive out there (broken toys are less fun), she had traveled with him and the twins. That a fairly entertaining trip, and she only grew more curious with the man due to his actions. While he scolded her for being impolite to the twins when talking with him, he freely played along with her antics when she acted like a child, easily giving her piggyback rides or steering conversations to make her seem like a child. He still owed her ice cream for letting the monkey faunus go... At the same time, he didn't bat an eye when she killed the fools attempting a standoff in a street, and was more wary of her having romantic feelings towards him than any real concern over her casual homicide (though, that might have admittedly been because of the nature of the scum...). Neo found it amusing that he was wary in her presence, and had quickly reassured him she had absolutely no romantic attraction to him.

She hadn't lied. Neo believed herself to be aromantic and overall uncaring of the majority of humanity. She was sexually attracted to him, but she was to anyone who was capable of defending themselves against more than a common thug, as that generally implies good physical appearance. She was attracted to the monkey faunus too, and still found the twins to be arousing. However, her boredom with the latter group means she won't act on it. Neo did have an uncommon interest in Orion and wasn't against the thought dating him, for lack of a better term. It would be quite amusing to say the least.

She turned off the shower and stepped out, still humming while she briefly admired herself in the mirror. The most curious thing about Orion was that he willingly interacted with her. A week after their trip to Vacuo, he had sent her a message. Nothing big, merely seeing how she was doing, and apologizing for mentioning her to Qrow (she didn't blame him for that). Which was... Highly unusual. She could count on one hand, with fingers left over, the number of people who talked to her about her health without wanting to hire her for a job directly after. That he did so was completely unexpected and unique, making him once again stand out to her. A week after getting his message she had grown bored and decided to pester him at his work.

There was an actual reason to this. Neo was fully aware that Orion was uncomfortable in her presence, and she wanted to know why. While she could ponder it for a while, it was easier to just ask him, as he would more than likely answer. Answer Orion did, and it was actually a rational reason. Orion held no dislike for her; he thought she was interesting or amusing, depending on her actions. He was very wary, however, as he knew how mentally distorted she was and how completely outclassed he was in terms of combat ability, despite counteracting her Semblance with what was theorized as passive signs of his own. This wariness did make him a bit uncomfortable around her, but so long as she reassured him she had no intention of harming him whenever they talked, he would relax a bit.

Neo was snapped out of her musings by her Scroll going off. Her personal one, no less. "Who... Well speak of the devil." The very man of her thoughts was calling. She quickly answered it, making sure the camera could only display her head.

_"Hey Neo." _Orion's face appeared on the screen, looking a bit stressed. The clouds in the sky behind him were moving, at a decent enough clip to suggest _he_ was moving. Neo raised a hand into view and waved. She heard a voice shouting in the background.

_"The twin was at least hot, psycho woman looked like a child! Why the hell are you calling her _now _of all times."_ Hmm. That sounded like the monkey from Vacuo.

_"Because of the clothes she was wearing! She's actually fairly developed, now SHUT UP SUN, I'm trying to save our lives here!"_ Aw, he was defending her attractiveness, how sweet. Wait, life-saving? Neo was now intensely curious as Orion turned back to his scroll on screen.

_"So hey, you're in Vale and not busy right now right?" _Neo nodded her head rapidly, a few droplets of water coming free from her hair.

_"Cool. Would you mind doing me a massive fav-"_ He cut off mid-sentence as he seemed to be intently studying something before his expression went blank and his voice dropped to a monotone. _"You just got out of the shower didn't you?"_ Another nod from Neo, along with a smug feral smirk.

_"... Fuck it, don't care right now. We're heading back to Vale from that forest that appeared in the East, could you possibly cause a big enough commotion to attract Huntsmen to get this horde of Grimm off our backs?"_ Hmm, that sounded bad even for her. Well she couldn't just let him die, he intrigued her far too much. Before she could gesture her answer, another voice spoke up on screen.

_"We have Nevermore! Orion get off the phone and help damnit!"_ The man in question scowled as he put down his Scroll, but surprisingly didn't disconnect the call. On screen, she watched as he shoved a man aside and picked up a massive metal object. Wait, isn't that Junior's old launcher? _How in the world is he lifting that thing? It's a good one fifty pounds! _Her answer came in the form of Orion's orange covered arms. Oh right, his massive Aura reserve would help here wouldn't it? He pulled a cylindrical ice-blue object from his jacket and inserted it into a slot on the weapon before hefting it and aiming at the sky behind what seemed to be the vehicle they were in.

_"Fire in the hole, mother fuckers!"_ With that resounding battle cry, waves of missiles launched from the weapon, shortly followed by a cacophony of destruction and explosives _she _could hear. Finally, after a good half minute of firing, Orion dropped the weapon with a grunt and a resounding _**CLANG!**_, rolling his shoulders out as his Aura faded.

_"There, the ice will slow them down, now pick up one of the machine guns and shut the hell up, I'm negotiating pulling our asses out of the fire."_ So saying, he picked back up the scroll and looked at the screen, before immediately averting his eyes. Neo blinked innocently before looking at how she was holding her scroll. _Oh._ She quickly adjusted it again so she wasn't giving him a free show. While she didn't really mind, now wasn't exactly the best time. Orion coughed awkwardly while she did so, a light blush in his cheeks.

_"Ahem. Anyway, was that a yes to getting us help?" _Neo quickly nodded before holding up a finger in view of the camera. Orion rolled his eyes. _"Yes yes, I owe you. Little ice cream devil. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll see you in a bit Neo." _That said, the call disconnected, presumably for the group to try and keep the Grimm off their backs. Neo began humming again as she grabbed her towel, putting down her scroll. Drying herself off, she wandered out of the bathroom to find her "work" scroll?

_Time to send a few messages..._

* * *

Neo, fully clothed, wandered into Junior's club a few hours later, noticing it was still closed. The bouncer easily let her by, though; she did technically have VIP status, and there wasn't a single person in the Den who could stop her from doing what she wanted. Inside at the bar were Orion, the monkey faunus, the other man she saw on Orion's camera, and a fourth teen all sitting at the counter talking with Junior as the big man seemed to be writing on his Scroll on the opposite side of the counter. The four closer to her seemed rather drained. She wandered up and poked Orion in the back, causing him to turn in his seat.

"Hey, Neo." He even sounded tired, but he didn't seem surprised to see her. He probably already knew she was there, or figured she would be after bailing him out. She had done so by flooding every Huntsmen's scrolls she could get the number of with warning messages of a Grimm build up to the East. "Thanks for helping us. That was almost very ugly."

Neo smiled mischievously at him. *It wouldn't do to let you die.* So "saying", she wandered up to Orion and, after pushing him farther in his seat, plopped in his lap, getting everyone else to freeze. As she had done this before to him, Orion was unconcerned, especially because he knew it was a sign she didn't intend physical harm towards him, and so turned back to Junior and his drink. The bartender on staff, forever impossible to catch off guard, slid Neo a neapolitan milkshake, lending credence to the theory Orion had expected her and had warned Junior. She gleefully took her drink and sipped it through the straw provided while Orion sipped at his before giving an irritated scowl at the other men who were just staring.

"What? She's done this before." Junior snapped out of it first.

"You do know who she is, don't you? And what she does for a living?" Orion shrugged.

"I hang out with you, I work for a technically incognito supplier for the White Fang, I just went out into a Forest of Doom with a semi-trained assassin, a thief, and one of the White Fang's better combatants. I'm also far too tired to give a fuck." Meanwhile, Sun was laughing his ass off drunkenly while the man with a magenta lock in his hair was staring at Orion. The third man, meanwhile, was choking on his drink.

"How the fuck do you know that?" Huh, he seemed angry. He froze when Neo directed a cold glare at him when he attempted to project killing intent at her current seat, who seemed supremely apathetic about the whole thing.

"Tukson left the store far too often to just be picking up books and knows Junior too well to just be a legitimate businessman. In your case, you are way too competent in combat to be anyone normal, I know you're not a mercenary like Neo, and you're a faunus who tolerates discrimination as much as I do. I'm not stupid. Does Blake know that you're working for a terrorist organization Adam?" So called out, the man groaned and slumped in his seat while Neo returned her attention to her drink, reassured the faunus wouldn't do anything foolish.

"Blake's a member too, so obviously yes. We tend to work as partners more often than not. Does Tukson know...?" Orion cut him off as he slid his finished glass over to Junior, moving carefully to not jostle the drink in the small woman's hands. Wise choice.

"No he doesn't, and I don't feel like mentioning it to him so long as it doesn't interfere with my work for him. That said, if I ever hear of you harming innocent people, I will come after you with explosives Adam." The man grunted as he returned to his drink while the final man, who had yet to speak up, finally chose to do so.

"Semi-trained assassin?" Orion blinked tiredly at him.

"Your movements are far too precise and smooth, even for any normal student. I say semi-trained as you seem more concerned with becoming a Huntsman and fighting monsters instead of killing people. That, and I sincerely doubt a real assassin would tolerate Nora's antics as a combat partner. Hence why I'm not too worried about you Ren." So named, Ren gave a thoughtful nod. The monkey finally stopped laughing and leaned against the countertop woozily.

"Haa.. So hey, could someone give me a ride to my hotel? I don't think I'd make it walking falling asleep." Adam spoke up as he slid his glass to the bartender.

"I'll do it. Junior?" The big man rummaged in his pocket and passed him the keys. "Ren, you coming?" The quiet man contemplatively sipped his drink before nodding, rising from his seat. "Orion?" Neo's object of interest waved him off, accepting another drink from Junior.

"I'll be sticking around for a bit. Don't forget to come by tomorrow for your pay guys." The three gave their respective farewells and left, leaving only Junior, Neo, and Orion at the bar, the other tender having left. It was silent save for the sound of Junior typing in his scroll while his VIPs imbibed their drinks, Neo adjusting herself to get comfy, surprised at Orion's remarkable self-control. Orion sighed as he finished his drink.

"Junior, mind if I crash here? I really don't feel like dealing with people." The big man looked up.

"Hm? Oh sure. Just remember to send me a picture of the things you fought before you go to sleep. Neo, since you're here, mind showing him where the room is." Neo nodded, finishing her own drink and hopping down from Orion's lap,tugging on his sleeve. Orion slid the glass smoothly to Junior before rising, carefully moving as he had apparently drank a fair amount of alcohol. He followed the mute as she wandered to the back.

*So, you fought more than Grimm out there?* Orion nodded, carefully using the wall as they went up the stairs.

"Yeah, I got pictures. Some really weird shit, you would've been amused. I'll show you when I get to the bed and can sit down. Aura can only filter so much alcohol, and I drank more than Sun did." Hmm. That could be fun. Neo tilted her head as she stopped for a moment at the top of the stairs.

*Indeed. I'm "well-developed", am I?* The odd man paused for a moment as he hit the top of the stairs, trying to figure out when he said that.

"I did say that, didn't I?" He shrugged. "I wasn't lying. Your height is the only thing childish about your body. Only reason I didn't react to having you in my lap is that even half drunk I have more self-control than most." Neo giggled, or at least vocalized a giggle through her Semblance so only he could hear.

*So, if I were to, say, strip and jump you as soon as I got you to the bed...* Orion snorted as he followed her down the hall.

"I'd throw you off the damn bed." Neo pouted at him, causing him to roll his eyes. "Not because I'm not attracted to you. I am, I'm just not in the mood and really fucking tired. My Aura reserves are damn near depleted from all the shit today, the alcohol didn't help." Neo considered this as she stopped next to a door.

*In that case, you are forgiven. In here.* Opening the door, she led him inside. The room was decent sized, with a closet set into the wall, a dresser, a desk, and a bed with a nightstand next to it. Neo closed the door behind it as Orion began disarming himself, eyebrows raising as more and more weapons appeared on the desk. *Prepared for a war are you?* He snorted.

"I still lack a lot of combat experience. Firearms and explosives are my current method of shortening the gap. Oh, here. Send the most recent photos to Junior would you? Feel free to look through them." So saying, he passed her his scroll while he started taking off his personal weapons. Curious, Neo went through the photos, sending them to Junior as she did so.

*Quite interesting... You fought these things?* She heard him place his deactivated gauntlets on the desk. "Yeah but they were weak as hell. Except for that big one, it shot lightning at us." Neo blinked before looking up at him, pink eyes full of wonder.

*A plant that shot lightning? How?* Orion shrugged as he removed his deactivated greaves and took off his boots.

"Magic." After that explanation, he took off his shirt, leaving Neo to give him a bemused expression.

*Modest much?* Orion gave her a blank stare. "You flashed me first." Neo shrugged at that, not arguing and appreciative of the view. While by no means ripped, Orion's constant sparring and fighting with others had stripped away a lot of body fat, along with his own personal morning workouts, leaving him with a decent physique. Orion gestured for her to get up and she did do, setting his Scroll on the nightstand.

"Right. I'm going to bed. So long as you don't stab me, molest me, or drug me in my sleep, I really don't care what you do. Goodnight." So saying, he flopped onto the bed and was out like a light, much to her amusement. She considered if she should leave him alone or not, before leaning her parasol on the door and locking it.

_Now where would be the fun in that?_

**AN: Aaaand chapter finish! The idea wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to write a chapter from the perspective of other characters Orion has interacted with. In case you didn't figure it out, the spotlight this chapter was on Yang, Miltia, and Neo.**

**Yang: Orion's best friend (currently) and one of the people he interacts most with. While having no romantic feelings towards one another, they are perfectly comfortable in one another's presence. Orion has slowly been affecting her with his views and opinions, as well as giving advice to her and her sister. She still does worry about his lack of personal memories, but hasn't thought of a way to bring it up without offending him. She'll eventually get tired of it and confront him over it soon, don't worry.**

**Miltia: One of Orion's potential love interests. She is secretly (somewhat) pleased with the fact that he pays a lot more attention to her than her sister, as despite her willingness to fade into the background she does like to be appreciated. She is also the best person to detail the changes done with the Bear Crew by Orion's influence. Yes, this is the latter half of the conversation last chapter, better formatted for your viewing pleasure, partially because it was from her POV rather than the the third person omniscient of the fight. She is rather fond of him overall and does talk more on the phone.**

**Neo: Another possible partner for Orion. Neo... is odd. I really don't think I'll have to detail that any more than I did this chapter do I? Yes she does terrify everyone in the criminal underworld of Vale, and yes she is wary of Qrow. In my head canon, Qrow is one of the scariest people in all of Remnant (we don't see it much because most of his interactions are with his nieces, who he tries to not scare the hell out of).**

**Events: So, some of you may notice that some events happened that I never detailed. My response? It was a **_**one month time skip.**_** A LOT can happen in a month, I only detailed a few events in chapter 19. This chapter, we see more of what happened over that time, from the perspective of others. Speaking of...**

**Perspective: Several of you may have noticed a **_**lot**_** of perspective jumps these past two chapters. I felt it was necessary for what I was doing. No worries, unless I do an Intermission chapter like this one again, I'll be toning that down to avoid confusion. It was mainly a reminder that despite being an SI/OC fic, there are other characters in the world. The idea and method of reinforcing that was inspired by Vixen Tail's "Deja Vu no Jutsu", quite possibly one of the best written Naruto fics I have seen, and also one of the best SI fics as well.**

**Some final thoughts. I would love some fanart of any scenes in this fic or of Orion himself, as I personally lack talent in that area. I also have been considering making a page on TV tropes for this fic (or letting you guys do so). Well, we'll see over time.**

**Orion has appeared in another work! "Shadows of a Wolf" by the Reaper of insanity now contains an AU variation of Orion. To be clear, **_**Orion of "An Odd Turn" and Orion of "Shadows of a Wolf" are NOT the same person.**_** While boasting some similarities (Semblance, lack of personal history, job at Tukson's) they are two different people. For example, Orion of "Shadows" met Neo before anyone else, and also had his Aura unlocked by Neo. While I have a lot of input on him, overall he is still a different character. **

**So, Read! Review! I'll try to get the next chapter out before another month has passed!**


	22. Chapter 22

**RRC: My replies to the peanut gallery!**

**Tenshi-san: We may see the manifestation of more "stories". Or, we'll see Orion and a companion or two temporarily transdimensionally displaced into a "story". Evil Forest is from FF9, I only distorted it a bit due to the Grimm it devoured upon appearance. Magic... Hard question. As there are so many systems of magic in existence, it's hard to pick just one. I will say that if I give Grimm magic, I'll give certain good guys magic too (not just Orion!). Give the man a break, he was tired as hell and half-drunk.**

… **Upon further thought I more than likely will incorporate various forms of Magic. Somehow. I'm really not planning this story and it just yelled at me it wanted magic, so we get magic. Once I figure out how.**

**Reaper of Insanity: of course! If you're going to use a character of mine, I will return the favor! You really really don't want to know.**

**Raiden: I'm glad you enjoyed it. Professor Goodwitch, Professor Ozpin, and Team CFVY will all make an appearance this chapter. The "tinman" will bide his time a while longer (he is a long way away from Vale, he needs a **_**really**_** good reason to head there). Yes Ruby will be enthralled, especially since Orion **_**is **_**a gifted storyteller.**

**Posidon: Orion was too apathetic to care. When he wakes up though... Glad you enjoy! I try to POV switch sparingly, as it is a work about an SI. However, he does affect the lives of others, more than what is readily seen from his POV.**

**RomanceDagger: Because I can see it too, it's a possible pairing. And Neo isn't really yandere, just a bit... off, as it were.**

**edus: Glad you enjoy!**

**FreezingReality: I'm glad you enjoyed! While it is an SI/OC fic with the SI/OC being the main character, there are still plenty of other characters doing things. And yes, he really should watch what he says.**

**Grimmjack: You are either not understanding the reference properly, or understanding the reference and being facetious. Glad you enjoy the story though.**

**Observer: … Glad you enjoy the story. That's all I'm saying.**

**AP: I'm amazed your account name hasn't gotten you banned. *gives cookie also* Glad you appreciate the story!**

**MonsterPhantom: *gives cookie* I be honored. I do try to make it somewhat enjoyable for other people, even if it's solely whatever I feel like writing.**

**Vix: Yaaaay, you reviewed! *gives cookie* Admittedly, I don't actually have much of a story idea. I'm just writing whatever comes to mind and disregarding future plans in general. THERE IS NO STORYLINE, THERE IS ONLY THE RAMBLINGS OF A MADMAN. *cough* The lack of personal history thing will be touched upon this chapter, as will the "talking too much" thing he has. Orion was the 'leader' of the temporary team because he's the one thing that connected the three of them. There probably would've been a greater clash of personality, except, you know, we're all bros here. And the Forest of Doom thing.**

**Mage of the Beginning: *gives cookie* Glad you like the story! Also, any whiny SI/OC is not a true SI. Admit it, at least once in your life, you dream of what it would be like to live in a different world. Us SI/OC authors? We're guessing at that dream's realization. Here's how I sum it up for me: **

"**Despite the situation he started in, he's living in one of his favorite anime spending time with characters that he thinks are pretty cool, and compared to his old life, he has superpowers. Why the hell would he complain? Any true SI, unless they end up in a world they hate or know nothing about (in which case, why would you be writing in it?), wouldn't complain. Every one of us nerds, at least once in our lives, wonder what it would be like to live in a fantasy worlds. Anyone who whines anyway is just a whiny bitch."**

**So two things. First of all, you should all read Vixen Tail's works (she's in my favorites). She was nice enough to give me advice when asked and read my story, as is plainly obvious. The intermission chapter was in a manner a shout-out to how she works her own stories (though I don't think she has a first person SI like mine…). Also, there shall be future references to her works, in a manner of speaking, so YOU SHOULD TOTALLY GO CHECK THOSE OUT. *flails***

**Secondly… I will announce that pairings have been boiled down to two possible choices. The first being the Malachite twins, together. Why together? Before **_**any**_** of you call blatant fanservice or self-indulgence, I'm going to point out that I **_**already**_** established the twins as a couple who essentially share. Before you bitch at me for that, that was a while ago, and I hinted at it being because of horrible shit in their past, **_**not fanservice.**_** I have plans for that, we'll see in time as Orion interacts more with them. They've always been a big option though, but they are now one of the two choices.**

**The other, as should be blatantly obvious with the past chapter and this one (very blatantly) is Neo. Now, I may have mentioned before that I personally think Neo is a little psychotic. I still do. However, craziness isn't always unattractive (if it's attractive outright, that's a different matter that you should **_**probably**_** talk to someone about). Despite previous comments I may have made, she is a grown woman in appearance, just short as hell, so no conflicting interest in **_**grown woman in a child's body**_**. There is a **_**lot**_** I can do with Neo, depending on my mood.**

**And a third option I'm struggling so much against as I declared a while ago that I am against a harem… is a relationship of all four of them. And before you bitch at me, when I say relationship between the four of them, I mean a legitimate relationship in **_**all of them care for one another **_**(as much as they are **_**capable**_**, anyway)**_**.**_** Now I personally see no reason for that not to happen, however many of you would more than likely get upset over such a thing, believing that humans can only love so much and blah blah I've already had this argument with others. In my head, so long as **_**every partner**_** in the relationship loves **_**each other partner**_**, I personally have absolutely no issue with it. Plus, as Orion would be the only male, as he's possessive in an emotional sense, it would smack really close to being a harem, which **_**I don't want to write.**_

**So. **_**Why**_** am I telling you all this here and now? Aside from ranting about why my mind is weird and won't stop poking me with weird ideas, it's because I want to know your opinions. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making a poll for this, as what I do isn't going to be decided by you, as I do whatever the hell I want. No, I'm asking as asking questions helps me think. So, I'm not only asking for your opinions, I want you ask me questions about the pairings so I can get a better idea on what to do with this (hence why it's **_**not a damn poll**_**). Either tell me in your reviews, or if you prefer, PM me. I would appreciate it.**

**That's all for now. Story time!**

**Aftermath, part II**

I slowly returned to consciousness from my deep sleep. Apparently alcohol, in enough quantities to overwhelm my Aura, make me rather tired. Good to know. Luckily, I didn't drink enough to fuzz out my memories, though I was bit _different_, as it were. Let's see, what do I remember…. Investigating the forest, a couple mob fights, an _epic_ with a boss from Final Fantasy, fleeing the forest. Getting the truck, hauling ass away from Grimm horde, firing Junior's launcher modded with ice dust to get Adam to shut the hell up… oh right I called Neo to help. Well, we were greeted by a good amount of Huntsmen, so she bailed us out. _Guess I owe her. Let's see what else…_ Heading to Junior's, detailing the adventure. Drinks, Neo popping up and sitting in my lap (I decided against arguing as she told me that it's a sign she has no violent intentions towards me. Plus, it wasn't like she was heavy or anything). More drinks, the other guys going home, Junior giving me a place to sta-

_What did I say to Neo?_ I felt, physically felt instead of my sixth sense, movement right next to my body. _This… could be very bad._

I cracked open an eye. Rather spartan bedroom, pile of weaponry on the desk. Neo's parasol was still in the room, leaning next to the door. Also, a trail of Neo's clothing. Leading straight to my bed. _I feel I should be more surprised, but I did bring this upon myself… Considering she has my arm, no point in drawing it out._ Very calmly, and without looking down at the body in bed with me, trapping my arm between her breasts, I spoke. "Neo. Why are you in my bed?"

I felt the world shift around me as Neo's unique method of communication kicked in almost immediately. Either she was a very light sleeper, or she was already awake and aware. *Because I can be?* I closed my eye, fighting the urge to roll them even when closed, and sighed. "Why are you _naked_ in my bed?" Pause. "More importantly, why are my pants on the ground?"

I felt her shrug, which was quite an _interesting _feeling in our position. *Because I sleep in the nude. And because I couldn't get your boxers off too and figured you'd be uncomfortable wearing jeans to sleep in.* I considered that. Then decided it was too fucking early to be dealing with this kind of bullshit. "You're not going to let go of my arm until you feel like getting up, are you?" Her grip tightening was enough of an answer. "Fuck it, don't care, I'm going back to sleep." That said, I settled into the bed as best as I could, trying to control myself as Neo drew closer.

There was silence for a moment, until I felt the world shift. *Orion… why is your hair blue?*

Both of my eyes snapped open immediately at that statement as I stared down at the little devil (who was covered by the blanket, so the most I could see would be her bare shoulders). In an absolutely blank tone I questioned her. "What."

*Your hair is blue. A deep, dark blue. And…* Pause as her eye colors swapped as she seemed to be peering into mine. *Your eyes. They're a golden-amber color.* Neo was unceremoniously flung from the bed, surprised, as I suddenly jumped from where I was lying to run over to the mirror above the desk and stare into it. Sure enough, Neo wasn't lying. My hair had switched from brown to a dark blue, and my eyes had turned golden-amber, a stark contrast to my old brown-green eyes. I slammed my head into the desk. "Fuuuuuuckk…" I recognized the coloration. It was a common one I gave Orion, the original one, a character I created, and it seems that I've somehow inherited it. Joy. I heard, and felt, Neo approach me, inquisitive.

*The blue is fading.* What? I looked back up into the mirror and saw that, indeed, the blue was fading. Very, very slowly, but I could see my roots were their original color. _Hmm… I wonder how that's happening._ Mid-thought, my eyes drifted toward Neo's image in the mirror before snapping away as a light blush covered my face. Neo communicated a giggle to me as she watched. *I told you before, you're allowed, Orion.* I coughed awkwardly as I closed my eyes. "I'm… not entirely used to that, sorry." Another giggle as she wrapped her arms around my waist, her bust very noticeably pressing into my back. *With how you act on a normal basis, and when drunk, you don't seem the shy sort. Quite confident. Unless this is your first time seeing a naked woman?*

Even with my eyes close, with a naked woman pressing her herself to my back, I can pull blank-toned snarker. "I have seen Melanie and Miltia in their underwear, I have seen a woman far more endowed in the bust department naked, and I have accidentally caught a cat-girl masturbating." There was a moment of silence. "Yeah, no, I'm not uncomfortable about that." Neo poked me in the side, getting me to open my eyes and see her pouting face staring into the mirror.

*Seriously? You've only been in Vale a month and a half, why can't I get that kind of action?* I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing at Neo's expression and words. "Really?" I chuckled, getting her to scowl at me. *Seriously! I've been dry for like two months, it's been driving me nuts! Hands and toys can only do much damnit!* Back to laughing, before I suddenly stopped as Neo grabbed me again, only in a much more… _sensitive_, area. "... Mind letting go?" Neo shook her head.

*Unless you plan on having sex with me when I do, no.* I sighed. _Why am I surrounded by weird people…_ "You can't seriously be that hard up for sex that you're trying to seduce a relative stranger." Neo shrugged, still not letting go, worryingly. *You're interesting, and it's not like you're unattractive. I really don't see why you're not just going with this, once again, many guys would kill for a chance to sleep with me. A few actually have.* Yeah, that was really unnecessary knowledge… I slouched in place, Neo moving with me, as I leaned against the desk. "Is there anything I can do to get you to stop, Neo?" She seemed to be considering. *Unless you feel like telling me exactly why no one can find anything on you from before a certain time period, nope.* I blinked. _Well, it's not like I'm trying to hide it… ok, I am, but Neo isn't going to tell Ozpin or Ironwood, so…_

"That's easy. Because up until a month and two weeks ago, I didn't exist in this world." A heartbeat. Then she (finally) let me go and stepped back to appraise me. *You really don't look like a month old baby.* I snorted, straightening and going back to sit on the bed. Neo wandered over and plopped next to me. "Certainly got your attention, didn't it? I wasn't born then, obviously. I'm 18 years old, roughly." She blinked, eyes swapping from pink-brown to brown-pink. *I feel a story is here. Do tell, or I'll do more than grope you.* I edged away from her slightly. "Let's… not. Essentially, as far as I can tell, I'm from another dimension. Woke up one day falling from the sky into a forested area. Got attacked by Beowolves and rescued by current roommates."

Neo raised one eyebrow. *As far as you can tell? How can you not tell if you're from another dimension or not?* I sighed, falling back onto the bed. I ignored (or tried to) the sensation of Neo crawling on top of me. "I am missing a great deal of memories. Trivia, raw information, I have, which is why I don't come off as uneducated. However, in that knowledge, before, I held no memories of Dust, or Aura, or Grimm. Nothing about Remnant itself, just a lot of knowledge about certain sciences, and a lot of history and mythology from a different world." Neo hummed, or rather an illusion of her humming manifested to my hearing. It was a surprisingly calming 'sound'. *Which makes you rather different, as you have a lot of history to call upon that isn't known by anyone else, giving you a different perspective. Still not seeing any particular reason for you to be uncomfortable with the idea of fucking me, especially when I'm practically throwing myself at you here.* Her words were accompanied with her slowly grinding her hips on top of me, which I desperately tried (and failed) to ignore. I hissed as Neo grabbed me again through my boxers. _Very, very distracting little devil._

"Because I'm a touch wary of starting a relationship, or of getting involved in someone any deeper than a casual relationship?" Neo tilted her head to the side. *And why would that be?* I swallowed as a lump formed in my throat. I was casual about it with Yang when I mentioned it to her, and managed to make her forget about it by constantly distracting her (or at least not pay as much attention as she should), but I truly was quite upset over one simple fact. Neo's grip tightened as her eyes narrowed. *Tell me Orion. Or I'll stop being nice.* This is her being nice? Well, I suppose it kind of is….

"Because I have absolutely no memory of any life beyond what I've built here." Neo, surprisingly faltered at that. I pushed ahead. "No family. No friends. No one I cared about, no one I loved, no one I fought, no one I hated. Absolutely wiped clean." Neo's hands, both of them, came up to gently lay on either side of my face. *Nothing? Not a single person?* If she wasn't holding my head, I would've shaken it. As it was, her expression's subtle shift was enough to tell, I'm guessing by my eyes. _Eyes are the windows to the soul and all that… _"I'm fairly sure I had parents that were together. I might have had an older sister. But I don't _know_. It's all lost, either sealed away by whatever turn of fate brought me here or completely erased. Heh, you know, 'Orion' isn't even my real name." Neo frowned down at me. *It isn't? Then why go by it?*

I averted my eyes from her stare. Seeing _Neo_ concerned was very…. disconcerting. "It's the name of a pattern of stars, Orion the Hunter. It's a name that feels… somewhat like my own. A pseudonym, I think. The full name is 'Orion Smith', but I chose not to take the last name." A blink. Her eyes were now both white, which was… odd, compared to their normal appearance. *Why not?* "A last name is also known as a family name. I know that that isn't my real family's name, it doesn't fit right, just as I know Orion isn't my real name, merely one I am using." I gave her a grim smile. "It's also a bit ironic. Assuming the name of a long dead hunter in a world of Grimm and Huntsmen?" Neo didn't return my smile, expression still concerned. I averted my eyes again, as I wasn't able to turn my head, "Stop that, concern doesn't suit who you are Neo."

*Even someone like me understands that to most, those bonds help make who you are. Even I still hold memories that help shape me to this day. Is that why you're so willing to just go along with people most of the time? That you disregard the fact that I'm a murderer and some of the people around you have a laundry list of crimes.* I shrugged, still not looking at her. "Probably. What is right? What is wrong? Who teaches such a thing to us? We base our judgements, all of our judgements, on past experiences, our instincts shaped by self-preservation and incidents it has encountered before. Intellectually, I know that you're probably a horrible person, and that you, Junior, hell probably even Tukson have a list of crimes that should persuade me to not associate with you. However, as none have been committed against me or anyone I know, I can't really bring myself to care." Neo pouted at me.

*Disregarding that horrible person crack…* I snorted. It was probably unfair to call her a horrible person; twisted and sadistic, but not really horrible. (Roman Torchwick, on the other hand, is an unapologetic bastard who I will gleefully punch in the face if given opportunity and reason (might turn out to be a good drinking buddy)). Neo clambered off and allowed me to sit up and lean against the wall. She then plopped back into my lap, leaning back into me and dragging my arms to wrap around her. I didn't protest; partially I felt no reason to, *This explains a great deal. Except your massive Aura reserves and sensory ability, almost everything makes a bit of sense now. I am curious as to why no one of importance has caught on to your existence yet.* "Mm, because my roommates are Qrow and his nieces. Qrow, as a favor to me, downplays my presence, in return for me constantly educating his nieces in what I have learned, being a fully educated young man from another world, giving them a bit of perspective."

I wasn't _just_ helping Ruby and Yang out of the kindness of my heart. That was part of it, but I _really_ didn't want people such as the Headmaster of Beacon or the General of Atlas figuring out that I was from another world. There was a _lot_ of concepts even a college student such as myself could provide to them, and I was not looking forward to an interrogation with either one. Ozpin most certainly would appear soon, what with the new Grimm that I ended up encountering and I'm easier to get a hold of then either Adam or Sun (he might approach Ren as well, but that's a vain hope I'd rather not hold on to). Neo shifted in my lap. *Qrow's presence prevents me from attempting to seduce you at your home, and is a bit worrisome. That man is terrifying.* I chuckled. "I won't argue with that. He is rather scary. His Aura is also pretty damn intimidating." There was silence for a time after, Neo probably contemplating everything I told her, me simply enjoying the fact that she isn't molesting/seducing me.

"I'm going back to sleep. At least until such a time as Junior kicks me out. Are you joining me or not?"

*... Sure. You're surprisingly comfortable.*

"I'll take that as a compliment."

* * *

We were awakened by pounding on the door. I growled under my breath as Neo shifted in my arms, pouting. "JUNIOR I KNOW YOU HAVE A GODDAMN KEY!" The pounding continued. Grumbling, I swung myself out of bed, Neo moving carefully around me as I did so. I paused next to the desk and tossed a knife back to Neo in case the person was unfriendly. Finally I walked over to the door, unlocked it, and ripped it open. "What?!"

On the other side was indeed Junior, looking unamused. "Why are there two Huntsmen here looking for you?" I blinked at him tiredly, still not fully awake.

"Are either of them the one I live with?" A shake of the big man's head. "I have no idea then. How the hell did they know I'm here?" A shrug.

"I don't know, but that blonde friend of yours is here too." Great. Yang too. This should be all sorts of fun… Junior raised an eyebrow at my state of dress, finally noticing it. "You could have put some damn clothes on." Oh hell no, he was not pulling that shit. I gave him the most blank face I could while hiking my thumb over my shoulder.

"You woke up Neo. Who sleeps in the nude. Also, I'd advise you to take a step to the right." Junior, highly confused, did so, not entirely processing what I said. The knife whizzing by his ear sped his thoughts right up though, and he paled drastically as he fought hard to stay looking at me. "Yeah. I would advise you run before Neo actually gets up from the bed and picks up something else from the desk." Junior disappeared. _Huh, surprisingly fast for a big man…_ Shrugging, I closed the door, and turned to indeed find Neo sitting up in bed, yawning, uncaring of the fact that she was blatantly displaying her breasts to me. Finding myself unable to care either, I walked to the pile of my clothes on the floor. *How long until he puts the pieces together and thinks we slept together?* I snorted as I pulled my pants up. "Far too short of a time for him to be uncomfortable. I'm guessing you're staying here?"

Neo nodded. *This bed is still quite comfy, and if it's a choice between sleeping here or dealing with Huntsmen when I'm kind of a criminal…* Fair enough. I pulled on my shirt as Neo got up from the bed, probably to lock the door behind me. Deciding to leave Junior's arsenal here, I put on Caestus and Opug, making sure the latter was still loaded. I felt a tap on my shoulder as I did so and looked up to have Neo directly in front of me. I immediately turned my head away, as with how I was standing her breasts were right in front of me, and I'm now slightly more aware than I was a few seconds ago. "Yes?" Neo didn't respond verbally, instead grabbing my head and dragging it to be level with her head. She had a mischievous gleam in her pink-white eyes that worried me a touch,,, And then all thought shut down as she forcefully drew me and mashed her lips to mine. My eyes widened, but before I could do anything she pulled away, a satisfied look on her face. I straightened up, blushing a bit. "And that was because…?" Neo shrugged, grabbing her parasol from by the door.

*Satisfying a curiosity…. And showing you what you're missing.* That said, she walked back to the bed, hips swaying. I fought back the urge to stare and walked out of the room, geared up and fully clothed.

_I will never understand that woman… at all._

* * *

I wandered out of the backroom to find the main club empty, aside from Kuma up at the DJ station looking over music. _Hmm… Where…_ I felt out and withheld a curse. I could feel Junior's and Yang's presence in the VIP room, but they were accompanied by two incredibly powerful people. _Ones I have yet to meet, but if I had to guess, I think I'll be dealing with the wizard and his good witch…_ I walked over to the door and knocked on it. Junior's voice called for me to enter and I did so.

"Orion!" I was immediately ambushed by a yellow blur that damn near tackled me. As it was, I actually had to use a quick pulse of Aura to stay on my feet. _Sheesh, I thought Ruby's glomps were bad!_ I chuckled as I hugged Yang back. "You're ok!"

"Please. You know I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Plus, I had backup." Yang pulled away and glared at me.

"You didn't come home last night!" I shrugged, letting her go as I took in the other occupants of the room.

"I was tired, give me a break. Hey Junior. You still owe me my pay." A nod and an eye roll from the big man as I turned my attention to the last two occupants. _I guessed correctly…_ "What would the Headmaster of Beacon and his right hand be doing in a shady bar such as this, I wonder?" I ignored Junior's affronted look at the "shady bar" crack. It was kind of true. Headmaster Ozpin took a small sip from his ever-present coffee cup while Goodwitch's eyes narrowed at my informality, especially since I knew who I was talking to. I walked to the opposite couch from the two and sat down in it, Yang plopping down beside me cheerfully. Ozpin spoke up first.

"I was curious about the group who had investigated the forest scaring away the Grimm, especially as several Huntsmen had to fight a horde of Grimm to save them shortly after their investigation. You were the easiest to track down, so I decided to come to you first." A gesture of his head at Junior had the big man frown, but he left the room. A moment after he left and closed the door, Ozpin tapped his cane on the ground.

I hissed as I felt my surroundings _shift_, completely alien and… no Aura? _That can't be right…_ I reached out. _Ozpin, sickeningly powerful… Goodwitch, powerful herself, though not on his level… Yang, below me in reserves… No one else? I know we're in the club. Junior just left, I should be able to feel him! Unless…_ My eyes snapped open as I glared at the man calmly sipping his coffee.

"Was it truly necessary to send us into a _different dimension_?" Yang's legs, which were previously swinging back and forth, halted mid-swing at my words. Ozpin looked intrigued while Goodwitch's expression was one of surprise. She spoke up.

"How in the world did you tell? The only person able to tell before was an old friend of ours. I can't even tell when Ozpin shifts the world." I sighed.

"I can sense Auras, and a bit more beyond that. I _felt_ the room shift, most likely a manifestation of Ozpin's Semblance, or at the very least an application of his own Aura, and I can no longer sense any Auras from outside this room. Which is _very disconcerting_." Ozpin calmly took another sip of his coffee.

"That is rather impressive, and quite a powerful sense at your disposal. I am curious as to how you came by it." I gave him a cautious look.

"Qrow believes it's a passive manifestation of my Semblance, as though he did first liken it to the bonds between teammates and partners, it is much more broad and powerful than that." Ozpin hummed in thought at that.

"I can understand his position on the subject. Very intriguing, though not why I am here." He leaned forward a bit in his seat, while Glynda, at some unspoken (and unknown to me) gesture, brought out her scroll, displaying a scene of combat. A familiar scene, but not from the angle I was watching from. _What? How did…? _Yang and I watched as the battle between my temporary team and the Fangs (now that I remember where the Forest was, I remembered the enemies as well) raged on. It was completely one-sided, looking back.

"Although Junior is generally reliable to procure information, an incident this close to home, as it were, is rather simple to investigate with the right resources." The trip continued, but I tuned it out to focus on Ozpin. Yang was still watching, intrigued over my adventure. "You had mentioned a familiarity of the place. What was it's name?"

"Evil Forest." I was still cautious. Ozpin could learn a _lot_ from just the incident in that video, let alone whatever he may ask me. "A forest corrupted by darkness. The plants themselves are carnivorous in nature, and spawn by planting seeds in other living creatures via an inhalable pollen. As nothing we fought actually gave off this pollen, I had refrained from mentioning it to the others." Yang's attention, only half on me, snapped to me.

"I'm sorry, what was that about 'plant-spawning pollen'? Wouldn't that kill you?" I waved her off.

"Yes it would, but nothing gave off the pollen, now hush Yang." She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at me, which I ignored. Ozpin took another sip of tea.

"'Evil Forest'? Quite a fitting name. And where, exactly, did you hear of this forest?" Yang tensed next to me, but I laid a hand on her shoulder to get her to relax. _Try to not sell me out here, Yang._

"An old tale, one of a fictional nature. I work at a bookstore, and many days there isn't much to do but read. I have always been fascinated with tales of alternate worlds, how things are different in comparison to ours. Makes me wonder how they had become like that, which butterfly's wings shaped the change of a universe?" Ozpin nodded as he made a small hand gesture to Ms. Goodwitch, who sped the recording up to another point. _The fight against Plant Brain._

"What can you tell me about your fight with this being? Your own words, please." Great. I'd really rather not spend more time than necessary in Ozpin's presence, but considering I don't have much of a choice…

"Plant Brain. The lord of the forest, as it were. All of the other 'sentient' plants answered to it, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it had a degree of control over the 'non-sentient' ones such as the trees. Could move its vines with quite a bit of force and directly command the lesser plants around it, including the trees. I am unsure if it was as powerful outside of its little grove." Another motion from Ozpin saw Glynda accelerating the video again, to the point it shot lightning at us. Goodwitch was the one who spoke this time, adjusting her glasses.

"This was the part that caught our attention. A plant of any sort such as this was unique, but one with control over electricity is an absolute abomination of nature. You are quite lucky it never hit any of you directly. Aside from that one young man, but he seemed to have absorbed it." I shrugged.

"Adam's got a few tricks. As for luck… I could feel when it was gathering energy. It wasn't generating electricity, exactly, more summoning it occasionally to lash out with it. If it could've generated electricity, those vines would have been far more dangerous." Ozpin nodded calmly, sipping his drink.

"I expect so. A plant with Aura is quite unique, at least an unlocked Aura. One with a Semblance is a bit into the realm of unnatural." I shook my head at that.

"No. While it did have an Aura, a very vile feeling one, that bit with the lightning wasn't. Like I mentioned to Lie Ren, I know Aura. I feel it every day. Whatever energy it gathered, it wasn't Aura. I called it magic at the time, but I have no real idea. Magic was prevalent in the tale I recognized it from, so it was a guess." Ozpin slowly nodded while Goodwitch shut off the video, getting Yang to pout as she had been watching it rather intently.

"I suppose that makes a bit of sense. It is a shame that you had to kill the creature." He raised a hand to forestall any comment I would have made. "I do not blame you. Any Huntsman or student in the same position would have done the same, in that situation. Anything dark enough to scare Grimm should not exist. But back to my original point." Glynda took over the conversation from there, manipulating her scroll.

"Of the young men accompanying you, one we are completely unable to reach. Another, the monkey faunus, is registered as applying to Haven the start of the next school year. Mr. Lie Ren has admitted he plans to attend Beacon at the next school year along with one Ms. Nora Valkyrie." My eyes narrowed. This rambling was going somewhere very obvious. "Following that, Headmaster Ozpin and I, upon reviewing this video extensively, wish to-"

"No." I cut her off, already able to tell where this was heading. "I will not be attending Beacon, or any academy for Huntsmen. I have absolutely no desire to become a Huntsman, and no real need to either." Yang looked at me weirdly, but didn't speak up. Her and Ruby both were perfectly aware that while I respect the Huntsmen, the idea of being one myself disgusts me. Glynda looked quite ticked at being cut off.

"Young man, it is a great honor-" I waved my hand flippantly at her, watching amusedly as her irritation skyrocketed.

"Yadda yadda, don't care. Not much of one for honor, personally. Specially when it has a good chance of, y'know, getting me killed? I know you spar with lethal weaponry. Sure, it's _controlled_, but what happens if just one mistake is made? A miscalculation of Aura, or of how powerful a certain attack is, and someone won't be walking away." That snapped her out of her irritation as she stared at me, surprised. "But then, that is probably why you are the one to oversee the sparring? With such a powerful skill such as telekinesis at your disposal, you could quite literally stop a blade or bullet inches from someone's heart." She blinked.

"How did you…" I tapped the side of my head.

"Semblance is the personal manifestation of one's Aura. I can generally tell what someone's Semblance is if I'm around them long enough. Also, I live with a veteran Huntsman and two Signal students who are determined to attend your Academy, the younger being almost obsessed with doing so. Knowing who you are, and your abilities, when you are much more blatant about them than the headmaster here, isn't too hard." She blinked again. I rolled my eyes. "I like to consider myself rather intelligent, thank you very much." Ozpin chuckled lightly.

"Indeed. I suppose there is nothing I can say to change your mind?" I shook my head.

"Qrow hasn't, Ruby hasn't, Yang here hasn't. Really think you'll have better luck?" Ozpin merely chuckled again.

"I suppose not. Very well, I am not like James. I will not force such a thing onto you." And for that I was eternally grateful. "If I may ask... Why is your hair blue?" Suddenly Yang and Glynda did a double take as if suddenly noticing such a thing. Yang actually reached up and grabbed some of it.

"What'd you do, dye it when your were sleeping?" I slapped Yang's hand away.

"No Yang. I actually have no idea, I just woke up with it like this. At least it's fading. Hopefully." Yang, regardless of my hand swatting at her, kept poking at my head.

"It is... So weird..." I finally got irritated and grabbed her arm, then flipped her over the couch with a dull _**thud!**_

"Seriously, stop that. We done here?" Ozpin nodded and tapped his cane on the ground, shifting us back to the real world, as it were. Suddenly, he tapped it again, and only he and I were in the room, the other two left behind this time. "Really? Now what?"

"While I am sure Miss Xiao Long is aware of your origins, Glynda is not, and I suspect you'd rather her not know at the moment." Ozpin's casual demeanor belied the seriousness of the coming questions. I let out a low groan as I slouched in my seat.

"Qrow told you. I only got him to promise to keep you off my back, not to tell you anything. My mistake. Who all knows then?" Ozpin sipped from his ever present coffee mug.

"Aside from anyone you have personally told and myself, Doctor Oobleck has been the only other person told. We decided that informing James would be a mistake, and the others on staff at Beacon would be... difficult to predict." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oobleck was told because all he'd care about deep down would be the other world's history and culture?" A nod was my only reply. "That's fine, I wouldn't be adverse to telling him about it. There was a question you wanted to ask me however?" Another nod.

"There are more than a few, but I was curious about these tales you know." I shrugged.

"Fantasy tales were my hobby. I know quite a few, but was there any specific one?" A dull stare was directed at me and I coughed awkwardly. "Aah... how did you figure that out?"

"A suspicion at first, but you confirmed it when you detailed Glynda's Semblance. While being an instructor is common knowledge, her Semblance is unknown to any who do not attend Beacon, excepting those who have personally worked alongside her." I grunted.

"Damn. I try to be careful... Won't do you any good. The tale I know is no longer possible with my presence and the changes I have made. It would have started a year from now, so a lot information is debatable at this point." Ozpin nodded.

"I assumed as much. I suppose that would have been too much to hope for, but I still had to try." I nodded, then frowned.

"You're taking knowledge of me being from another dimension quite well." A shrug from the Headmaster.

"As you may have noticed, I posses a power that lets me create temporary dimensions. This isn't my Semblance, merely something I have learned." _What?_ What I know of Aura tells me he's lying, but I don't think intellectually he is, why would he? _So how-wait. Under the layer of Aura..._ My eyes narrowed at the man.

"That explains why you didn't argue the magic explanation. I didn't expect mana to be present, unfiltered from your Aura." Ozpin looked pleased.

"So you can tell. That sense of yours is quite powerful. Indeed, I do posses some magical ability alongside my Aura, though it is admittedly extremely rare to encounter. I am surprised you couldn't detect the amount Qrow has, however." I grimaced at that.

"I actively tune out Qrow's presence whenever possible, his Aura is terrifying. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot I didn't know about that man." Ozpin nodded, accepting the explanation.

"Very well. Unless there's anything you'd like to ask of me?" I almost gestured that I didn't, then paused.

"Two things. The first is keep an evaluative eye on Ruby. She's incredibly gifted, far more than her current school will allow her to express." Ozpin nodded amiably.

"And the second?" I smiled at the man.

"Would you mind sending Team CFVY to visit my place of work? I haven't seen Velvet in a while." A blink from the man before he laughed.

"Even knowing of my position, and everything at my disposal, all you ask is to meet a team of students." His laughter died down. "I assume that you know of them through more than Miss Scarlatina?"

I nodded. "They become pretty powerful. That's about all I'm willing to tell you, nice try though." Ozpin shrugged.

"You can not blame me for attempting any more. If I may ask, is anyone fully aware of your current status?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm perfectly fine." Ozpin shook his head.

"Are you? Truly? Despite your lack of memories." I shrugged at him, unconcerned. Yang probably had mentioned it to Qrow… or had I? Regardless, Qrow knew, and had told Ozpin.

"I like to think I'm well-adjusted." Ozpin shifted in his seat.

"True, you are remarkably more polite and kind than I expected from one with no basis in reality. Especially one with no regard for human life." I instantly stilled.

"Think you're wrong there. I care about Ruby, Yang, Tukson, even Ren and Nora, despite how little I've seen them." Ozpin raised an eyebrow.

"From what I can understand, all of these people play some role in a story you know. A fairly decent role, and there are others you have yet to meet I assume. However, from everything we know from Qrow and our own observations, unless you're attached to them, you don't really care do you?" I frowned at him, irritated.

"And how do you piece that together?" Ozpin sipped from his coffee.

"You are incredibly quick to violence when irritated or provoked, and you don't seem to mind accidentally crippling someone." I blinked.

"Don't think I've ever done that." Ozpin didn't even move.

"Truly? What about the time you gave a man a major concussion? It was an incident right outside this very club I believe, about a month ago." What? I leaned back, thinking. Incident, fight… that time with Blake and Adam? I snapped open my eyes and looked at the man.

"There's no way I concussed him. I didn't hit him that hard." Ozpin took out his own scroll and brought up a file.

"A major concussion and a few broken ribs. You don't seem to understand your own strength it seems, especially when Aura is equated in. Even now you don't seem particularly regretful." I shrugged.

"It sucks, but he took a swing at me with intent to harm me. Am I supposed to feel bad about hurting someone who attempted the same to me?" Ozpin nodded, before typing a bit into his scroll. I had already figured out that I wasn't leaving here until he was satisfied, as despite feeling what he was doing I had _no_ idea how to cancel out being in a different dimension, _especially_ when you add in he used Aura and mana. I resigned myself to this interrogation.

"Your trip to Vacuo lists several fatalities. Quite a fair amount, in fact. One of which was personally done by you. You caved in a man's skull with your gauntlet. Quite brutally, I must add." I blinked.

"I _despise_ rapists. I figured I had just knocked him out and someone else would deal with him." Ozpin's brown eyes met mine, disapproval in them.

"I would advise you to drop the act. I _know_ that Qrow wouldn't have taught you how to use your Aura without warning you of the inherent risks of using enhanced blows upon the majority of the populace." I sighed irritably.

"Ok, fine, I may have meant to kill him. So what? As I said, I have nothing but hatred and disgust for rapists. I personally feel any who has committed such a crime should be killed. Where is my lack of regard of human life again, when I was justified?" Ozpin nodded slowly.

"What about all the others killed by your associates? Very few people walked away from your midnight brawl, most of them being you and your companions at the time." I shrugged.

"They knew the risks. They fought against people with sharp blades and training, they planned to ambush said people. They _did_ ambush the twins with numerical superiority and lots of weaponry. In that kind of situation, I doubt any but the most kind-hearted will care if they kill someone or not, they'd be a bit more busy _surviving_ such a situation." Ozpin's face remained blank as he sipped from his coffee.

"So, you refuse to acknowledge your disregard for human or faunus life?" I stared blankly at him.

"I will admit I'm probably a bit too quick to resort to violence when provoked. I sincerely doubt that I have the disregard that you claim." Ozpin studied me for a moment longer.

"Very well." His cane tapped on the floor again, placing us back in Junior's VIP Room. Yang had taken up her old seat and Glynda had remained in hers. They had evidently been in a fairly deep conversation as upon our arrival Yang nearly jumped out of her seat. "It is time we take our leave then. There is sadly much to be done at Beacon. Thank you for time Miss Xiao Long, Orion." With that, the two instructors stood and left the room, leaving only me and Yang who immediately hugged me again.

"You're back! What did Ozpin want to talk to you about?" No point in worrying her. While I had my doubts, major doubts, Ozpin seems like the type of person that wouldn't act on something without reason… _Come on, though, me? Not caring about others? Sure, I've taken to associating with some odd people and I may have been in a few life or death situations, but it can't be that bad, right?"_

I shrugged, giving her a small grin. "Nothing important, really. Just wanted to ask about where I came from and didn't want to alert Miss Goodwitch is all. Come on, let's head home. It's been a long few days." Yang nodded agreeably and stood first, before helping me up.

"We're walking, as I couldn't exactly take Bumblebee to show the Professors." I shrugged, cracking my neck.

"That's fine, I could use a relaxing walk home. Oh, we need to get my pay from Junior on the way out. Got another story to tell Ruby…"

* * *

Fun day. After collecting my pay from Junior (who had actually just set up a bank account and given me access to it, as he figured that this would be happening again), we returned home only for me to get ambushed by a worried Ruby. Who, upon learning I wasn't really injured, and deciding that my blue hair wasn't bad, immediately turned into a starry-eyed chibi Ruby filled with desire to learn about my most recent adventure. As I fought monsters this time, I could tell them the truth, and masterfully mesmerized the sisters while Qrow looked on. (When I hit the part about "lightning-proof weaponry" I had indeed picked up the nearest chair and threw it in Qrow's general direction. He merely tilted his head to the side and simply said it hadn't crossed his mind as I "wasn't training to be a Huntsman". Jerk, but he said he'd bring me to the forge to fix that little issue within a week.)

Afterwards, I had returned to bed, and thankfully awakened with brown hair. I blinked tiredly at that. "Well… at least it was short-lived. Could do without the golden eyes." Unlike Blake, I really don't think I can pull that off. Yang shrugged next to me, as she had been the one to wake me (no school today apparently) and to point out the lack of blue.

"If it's like that because your hair was, it'll probably fade in time. I'm glad it was you instead of me, my hair doesn't deserve such a thing." She was idly stroking her own long golden locks, getting me to smirk at her.

"It totally does. The _populace_ doesn't deserve the exorbitant amount of property damage you would commit upon such a thing, however, so that's a more likely reason as to why it happened to me instead of you." _And that I fought something that's from yet _another_ world of fantasy. Oh joy to the multiverse theory…_ I mused over the possible ramifications of such a thing while Yang pouted at me calling out her destructive rage when her hair gets touched. "Stop that. Tony is still terrified of you, it was a freaking accident. If you don't want your hair to get cut, keep it bound when fighting people with _sharp objects._"

Yang shook her head vehemently. "No way! My hair doesn't deserve being bound by such a thing!" I sighed, wandering past her and back into my room to grab my weapons.

"Whatever. I'm heading to work, hopefully I can get a normal fucking day for once…" Yang, Ruby who was in her room with her headphones off, and even _Zwei_ all gaves various noises of disbelief, causing me to flip off Yang and cast a quick glare at Ruby's room. "Traitors."

* * *

_Or…. scarily accurate precognitive abilities at work. Possibly._ I pondered the idea of that while laying face down on the ground with a gun to my head, a semi-familiar presence above me holding it. "Hi Blake. Why am I being pinned down with a gun to my head?" She had ambushed me from a rooftop, thrown me into an alley after jumping on me, and then dropped on top of me _again_ while I was still wondering _WTFwhyisthishapppening_ as I had admittedly been lost in other thoughts and thus not paying attention to my surroundings. Hey, I don't normally get ambushed until _after_ I get to my place of work, don't judge me hypothetical reader of my mind! _Huh, my thoughts get really fucking weird when I'm being threatened…_

A nudge from above me reminded me that there was an angry cat-girl above me, hissing mad (which quite frankly was an adorable fucking image, considering I knew what her ears looked like). "You _knew_ that Adam and I were White Fang? How did _you_ find out?" Whoops. I guess that was coming back to haunt me. Well, time to fast-talk like a mother-fucker….

"I pieced together Adam, he told me himself that you were when I wondered what your thoughts on him being White Fang were. Also I'd watch him when he has alcohol." There was the sound of flesh-meeting-flesh, I'm assuming she was facepalming, but the gun didn't budge an inch. "Was it really necessary to jump me on the way to work? As that's rather irritating. You're quite comfy though, I must say." Blake didn't move an inch as she processed that statement.

"... I'm going to ignore that and go back to the original idea of threatening you."

"... Yeah, you probably should, I have _no_ idea where my mind went."

"Riiight…" The catgirl drawled as she tapped her pistol against the back of my skull. While I _could_ take a couple of shots from it (it was one of the weaker firearms in the series) actually fighting Blake would be all sorts of bad, and something I'd like to avoid. "Let's skip to the part of why, exactly, you thought it was a brilliant idea to blurt out that little piece of knowledge?"

"I was drunk?" The gun nudged my head a little. "Adam was the subject in question, Sun's going to Mistral and thus won't give a damn, Ren doesn't give a damn either as by the end of the day Nora will do something to make him forget it, and Junior probably already knows he's a fucking information broker. What the hell do you want from me?"

She hummed a little in thought, not moving an inch from her position. Least she wasn't heavy… _Oh I am so glad I didn't say that aloud._ "Let's see… you probably won't help the White Fang, judging by your previous comments."

"I would be nodding, but that is difficult with a face-full of asphalt and a _gun to my head._"

"Oh quit whining, I haven't actually shot you."

"_There is a gun to my head._ That is plenty enough reason to complain. Unless you're a dominatrix type and this is leading up to you screwing me and _holy shit I said that out loud and __**what is wrong with my thought processes?!**_" There was a moment of silence. Very confused silence.

"... I _may_ have given you a slight concussion when I landed feet-first on the back of your skull. Or more than slight. Also possible when I threw you headfirst into the alley. Because I can not think of any logical reason why you are saying the things you are saying. Especially the position you are in."

I shrugged as best as I could as I started actively channeling my Aura to my head… _and there it is._ "This is only slightly worse than that time Adam and I accidentally walked in on you. You were much more likely to kill me then, but there was a far better view."

"You are _sooo_ lucky I'm blaming the concussion for that." I could hear the irritation in her tone as she tapped the barrel of her gun against the back of my head again. "Otherwise I would be tempted to kill you. Quite painfully. Actually I still kind of am, as you bribed me with catnip laced cookies to get me to accept your continued existence."

"It was all I had at my disposal. Don't entirely regret it, you're fucking hot and a catgirl and that was an _awesome_ thing to see. There are _thousands_ of male fantasies about such things and _why am I still talking__** can this heal any faster please?**_" Another pause, and I felt Blake's embarrassment skyrocket. She's probably blushing, a lot.

"You're not allowed to talk until you can stop yourself from being monumentally stupid." The gun pointed to the back of my head pressed forcefully into it to get the point across. I… wasn't going to argue. There almost a full minute of silence before Blake spoke up again, quietly. "Really?"

I snorted. "You mean you never looked? Search it sometime. Suffice to say, a lot of men, and women, would _kill_ for what I saw that day. Actually a good majority, as you are incredibly attractive and that was a fairly arousing image and _wow_ my concussion apparently still needs to heal a bit more!" I ended that with a very cheerful lift in my tone as Blake's embarrassment, which had cooled down over the minute, had skyrocketed again. There was more silence for a time, until finally I felt my Aura stop working. "Ok, I think I'm good now. Really."

There was a beat of silence, before Blake heaved a sigh. "I think you pretty much killed the entire tone of me being intimidating, is the thing here."

"Uh, sorry? No, wait, not really, as there is _still_ a gun to my head. What can I do to get the gun away from my head? That doesn't involve killing people or joining the White Fang. I'm pretty sure the latter is pretty impossible as I'm not a faunus, anyway." Which severely limited what, exactly, I could actually do for Blake. "I could give you my solemn vow of silence?"

A tap on my skull from her gun. "You were going to give that _anyway_, right?" I lifted my arm and gave her a shaky thumbs up. "Anything other ideas?"

I considered it. "More cookies? And I'll personally pay for your next copy of Ninjas of Love?" There was a pause as she thought about it.

"... Fine. Adam would probably be upset if I killed you anyway. Not to mention Tukson would need a new employee. You have a week on the cookies thing." Joy, I'm not going to get shot today! I felt Blake get off me and carefully got to my feet, alert for any other injuries. Thankfully, there were none, but since all of my awareness was inwards, I was caught off guard when I turned and was punched in the face by a still red-faced Blake. I staggered and leaned against the wall, letting my Aura cover my face. _That was a pretty good punch for a blade user…_

"I would ask what the hell, but I think I deserved that." Blake raised an eyebrow at me, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You _think?_"

"... OK, I totally, deserved that, which is why I'm not going to try and hit you back. Most of it was complimentary, in my defense." Blake seemed to be considering that.

"True, but that's a good part of why I didn't kick you in the groin instead. The other part being you were suffering from a concussion that was my fault to begin with." Blink. Tilt head to consider. Shrug.

"You know, I'm okay with not being kicked in the groin. Especially by you." Blake simply blinked at me. "I of all people am fully aware of how strong you actually are when you feel the need. I'd _really_ rather not get kicked by you." She shrugged, unapologetic. "Whatever. I'm going to work. You coming with?"

"... Yeah, why not."

* * *

Tukson, of course, was curious as to why I was late, with Blake in tow. I spun a bullshit story of her finally getting back at me for the incident where I walked in on her (which was _technically_ true, if you squinted at what just happened) and he got his chuckles out of it. Until Blake threatened him too, which made me feel a little bit better. After Blake spent a bit of time browsing and picked up a fantasy book on my recommendation (Copperwall, because it was really familiar to me), she left, reminding me I owed her cookies. Guess Ruby was getting cookies. I would have to make Ruby's first, because if she's not in a sugar coma I won't be able to make Blake's…

Tukson had left shortly after, citing "personal business" (read: White Fang business), so that just left me in the shop alone. Again. Bright side, I had a chance to catch up on my leisure reading. Currently, I was about a tenth of the war through the first "Ninjas of Love" book. Actually not that bad a book, and the smut scenes aren't bad either. Don't blame Blake for not skipping them, both because of that and because they are a bit integral to the plot. Unlike Blake, I actually have no real desire to use the book as she did, though as a joke I might give it to Yang and say a female customer suggested it… I looked up from my book when the bell rang, peering over my feet as I was leaning back on my chair with my feet on the counter. I blinked as I spied bunny ears, a fancy hat, and someone who was _way too damn tall,_ considering I could see his whole head and the tops of his shoulders. Well, I guess it's time to do my job I'm paid for… most of the time. _Those bunny ears seem familiar though, where have I seen bunny ears..._

"Hello! Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun! How can I help you?" Still too lazy to actually sit up properly, I merely raised a hand as I put my down under the counter so as to prevent them seeing it. Upon my action the group of _four_, according to my senses approached the counter. I blinked at finally getting sight of the group. "Oh. Hi Velvet, how are you?"

"Hello Orion." The rabbit faunus spoke quietly, but did at least smile at me, so yay progress! She gestured with her hand at the people following her. "These are my teammates. Yatsuhashi"-The big man merely gave a nod at his introduction-"Fox"-Another nod from the fourth person that I hadn't noticed when they first walked in, _what is with all the silent people_-"and-"

"Coco Adel, leader of us lovely people otherwise known as Team CFVY." The brunette wearing the hat stepped up, gesturing grandly. I merely raised an eyebrow at her. Aparently there was no need for the other two to talk, as they had her. Now that they were closer and I was actually paying attention, they did match. Lots of browns… Yatsuhashi is a incredibly tall young man, I'm fairly sure he's at least a good foot above my own 5'10" height, and wore a green robe-like piece of clothing with some type of armor attached to his upper left arm and a _massive_ beast of a sword strapped to his back. Fox, the other silent one, was an orange-haired young man wearing a sleeveless orange shirt with black pants who stood at about my own height. He's also the first black person I've met in Remnant, interestingly, but what was most interesting were his eyes: they were a solid white, and I couldn't tell if he was actually blind or not. He certainly didn't _act_ like it… The last person that I observed was Coco. Sunglasses, lots of accessories, tan and brown high quality clothing, aforementioned beret… Very fashionable young lady. All of this was noted during their introductions (or rather Velvet's introduction of them), so only a moment to observe the leader passed before I responded with a raised eyebrow.

"A pleasure. My name is Orion. I'm assuming you're here for something other than your own pleasure?" While I did ask Ozpin to send CFVY my way, I didn't expect for him to do so so soon…

"As a matter of fact, it is a bit of both. We recently got a new assignment in class that we've been stuck on, and the library hasn't been too terribly helpful." Coco shrugged apathetically, as if that wasn't new. "Velvet approached Miss Goodwitch for any ideas for help on the assignment, and she recommended this store." I took my feet off the counter and sat up in the chair, now curious. _At least that explains why they're here so soon..._

"Oh? And what would this assignment be?" Another shrug from the confident girl.

"Something about people getting strong without Huntsman training in today's modern era. It is actually fairly interesting, but we're not really able to find much about it." I nodded slowly, considering as I laced my fingers in front of my face.

"Well now… that is quite the subject. Did Port or Oobleck bring it up?" Glynda probably wouldn't have, Ozpin doesn't teach, and I can't think of any other teachers… Velvet spoke up quietly from behind her leader.

"It was Oobleck, actually." I nodded to that. It made a bit of sense that he would assign such a thing, the man is very open-minded, and might be curious over such a thing.

"Hmm… Well then, let's see… Off the top of my head, I could point at various powerful criminals for you to look at. While a good number more than likely received some amount of training, some did not, and still were troublesome enough to worry even licensed Huntsman. As well, there are probably several notable figures in history who left behind various works to teach oneself to fight, I know we have a few of those works on sale here." I pondered over the subject while the Team digested that. Fox spoke up, so apparently the man did speak.

"Anything more concrete than that? We could probably have searched Dustnet for that info." I shrugged at his comment, not at all bothered by.

"True, and you more than likely will probably have to do that for the criminals bit. I suppose I do know of another example or two personally, now that you mention it, and I might be able to point at an organization as well." Coco leaned on the counter, tilting her glasses down to stare at me.

"Really now? And what might those be?" I tilted my head at the woman.

"The Bear's Den, a nightclub here in Vale, has several men in its employ who are a little stronger than your average civilian. The owner and his personal enforcers are also fully capable of fighting on par with students such as yourselves. A mercenary acquaintance of mine, if she really felt like, could trouble any but the most veteran Huntsmen with her combat abilities and Semblance." I considered my next point, as Velvet was here, then decided I may as well. "The terrorist organization, the White Fang, are also known to have several high-level combatants at their disposal." Coco's eyebrows rose at that comment, while Velvet shifted uncomfortably.

"Really now? I suppose that would be a worry, now wouldn't it? While it is nice to see Velvet finally defend herself, those people take it _way_ too far on the equality thing." Coco blinked as I could practically _see_ a thought popping into her head as she straightened from leaning on the counter, giving me a very studious look. "Speaking of… Would you perhaps know the reason Velvet has suddenly started responding with violence when people try to physically abuse her?" I hummed as I thought back to the last time I met the bunny-girl. Let's see… Bits and pieces of our various conversations drifted back to me. _Huh. I guess she did listen…_

"There is a possibility I may have sparked an idea for her to think about during a casual conversation about things such as faunus-human relations and the like." I shrugged. Velvet seemed to realize something as her ears drooped a bit. Noticing this, I carefully focused my senses on the young woman who was still studying me intently.

"I see. While it is nice to see our little rabbit finally stand up for herself, the first few times a teacher put us into detention. As that is _your_ _fault…_" Unlike the earlier experience with Blake, I could tell what Coco was about to do. I was also in a far better position to deal with it, unlike getting blind-sided earlier, and Coco had a counter between me and her that made her next action a bit awkward to pull off.

Coco swung her handbag at me across the counter-top, causing me to forcibly lean back in my chair and catch myself with my hands on either side of the counter. My legs came up, Opug armoring them, and I pointed both of them at Coco's head as she stumbled at her missed swing. She froze, and the other three tensed, as she stared down the greaves that she could clearly see doubled as guns. I merely tilted my head at her.

"Please don't do that. Violence is frowned upon in this store, Also I really don't feel like fighting, this is my recovery period from walking into a Forest of Doom and then escaping a Grimm Horde." Coco tilted her head slightly so one of her eyes could stare into mine, bemused.

"I'm assuming that those things are probably loaded with shotgun rounds?" I gave her a smile. It was not a friendly one.

"You assume correctly. And you're in optimal range too. Once again, though, I'd really rather not have to commit any violence. Overall I'd lose, as I'm fairly sure you would survive, and I'm horribly outnumbered. On the other hand, all property damage would be charged to Beacon, ergo you. And trust me, there would be a LOT of property damage." Velvet approached her leader.

"Coco… leave it be…" Coco kept staring me down while I maintained my position of pointing my greaves at her face. Finally she let out an unladylike snort and took a step back, which I took as a cue to lean my chair back forward and drop my feet back to the ground.

"I'm assuming you were planning on mentioning yourself at some point?" Fox was the one to speak, who seemed to be studying me intently. "Those aren't exactly run of the mill weaponry, nor is the amount of Aura you have anywhere near normal levels for a civilian." I shrugged.

"My abnormal Aura reserves are a question that is still trying to be figured out. My weaponry was built myself yes, personally for me. And I was going to mention myself at one point, but I'm technically trained by a Huntsman in how to use Aura. That's the only thing he's actually taught me, however, so I do qualify, though I'm nowhere near the level of a Beacon student yet, let alone an actual Huntsman." _And seriously, how the hell do people keep figuring out my Aura reserves just by looking at me, I thought that was my trick?_ Coco raised an eyebrow at my explanation.

"And who would be training you? And why, matter of fact?" I shrugged.

"The why is because he found me in a bad situation and his nieces essentially bugged him to do so as they're somewhat fond of me. As to who, it's a man by the name of Qrow, a teacher at Signal." That got a LOT of attention, as all four of them had wide eyes. Huh, I thought I had mentioned it to Velvet…

"Qrow? As in _Qrow the Reaper_? That Qrow?" I blinked as Coco's voice took a slightly hysterical edge.

"I guess? Didn't know he had an epithet, though it makes sense. It does kind of fit him, his Aura is terrifying. He's only taught me about Aura, everything else I know how to do is me. What exactly were the specifics of your assignment?" Coco and the two men still seemed a bit stunned at my revelation, so Velvet stepped forward and took over, which surprised me.

"Ah… It was to list and detail a few notable examples of combat capable non-Huntsman, and if possible interview one to learn how they taught themselves and what they would recommend to others." Trust in Oobleck to be thorough, I suppose. Quite a pain…

"Fair enough. Well, I suppose I'll have to do the interview then, as the twins aren't really sociable, my mercenary acquaintance doesn't actually talk, and anything you ask a White Fang member would more than likely be asked inside an interrogation cell. I would ask that you keep to yourself who your source is until after your assignment is over, I don't feel like getting swarmed by your peers. You have any specific questions for me?" Finally the other three realized that they were out of it and returned to reality. Coco and Fox visibly shook themselves while Yatsuhashi returned to being all stoic and everything. Velvet stepped back to let Coco take the lead once more, though Fox stepped up as well. They both pulled out their scrolls to serve as note-taking devices after they agreed to not tell their fellows who I was, and then began the questions…

* * *

"Junior!" I called out to the big man behind the bar. After the Q&amp;A session with Team CFVY, they had returned to Beacon but not before getting my own scroll number so they could contact me later. I agreed to it, as I did technically have a wealth of knowledge at my disposal… Afterwards, it was a slow day that spurred me to go visit Junior again. Surprisingly, the club was _still_ closed to the public, though I was let in when I walked up. Behind the bar Junior looked up from his scroll, blinking at me. "Any chance you can get me a drink and _not_ give me another dangerous job?"

The man snorted. "Sure, Opal. Not like I don't pay well or anything." Junior put down his scroll and began rummaging through his drink selection. He frowned for a moment at what he had, looked up as if considering something, before nodding to himself. "I need to go grab something from the back, if you don't mind waiting a moment?" I shrugged.

"Why not? I don't have anything else to do." Junior wandered off out of sight, leaving me sitting alone at the bar. Suddenly I felt the twins approach before sitting on either side of me, looking at me.

"So, Opal…" I looked at Melanie through my peripheral vision as she spoke; a feral smirk adorned her face as she stared at me. "What's this we hear about Neo sleeping with you when you last visited?" On my other other side, Miltia's face was completely impassive. However, I _knew_ how irritated she was through her soul.

_This…. could be bad. Junior, you traitor!_

**AN: Cliffhanger! No worries, I'm not skipping the conversation. However, this chapter has hit 11k+ in **_**story**_** length. IE, way too damn long. So, ending it here on this note, and will continue Opal's interrogation by the twins next chapter. It promises to be amusing, does it not? Thoughts for once:**

**Neo and Orion: Yeah… Stuff. All sorts of stuff. I'm just going to cover the main points: Neo is not romantically interested in Orion, but is entertained by attempting to seduce him. She also won't be that kindhearted again, however even she understands how important one's memories and connections are. Finally, there is fair odds of them having at least casual sex sometime in the future. Not going to describe it though.**

**Orion's issues: Yeah… these do exist. Orion's lack of personal history **_**does**_** bother him, but he keeps those worries buried deep down. As mentioned, the lack of memories has affected him. This will pop up again from time to time, but essentially the biggest points is that Orion is in truth rather apathetic to many things and yes he does have less regard than is probably healthy for the lives of others. Does he have a complete disregard? No, and he probably won't ever drop that low. However, he does care less than the average man about others unless he's actually attached to person in question in some way.**

**Wizard of Oz: That's right! OZPIN HAS MAGIC. Only a little bit, currently, but he does have it. Because he's the Wizard of Oz. And also for other reasons that shall pop up later. Now many of you may ask why is he offering Orion a place in Beacon? Well, it's not an immediate place that was offered. Remember, there is still a **_**long**_** time before canon, and Orion has the **_**potential**_** to be a student at Beacon. He immediately enrolled Ruby after witnessing her skills against a bunch of thugs, it makes sense he'd offer it to a young man who lead three others into a dangerous area and led them back out with minimal injuries. Orion didn't accept because HE WILL NOT BE A HUNTSMAN. *shrug* Deal with it. Also yes Ozpin is aware of Orion's origins, but then he's been aware since chapter six or seven. It's just now out there that he is aware.**

**Cat pouncing: Yeah… Orion's words came back to haunt him here. Orion managed to get out of a beating by fast talking though. And completely disarming Blake with brutally honest comments because his mental filter wasn't exactly working. Concussions do that. Yes, he believes everything he said, as it is true, and he is very blunt in his appreciation of the attractive women around him. Normally not that blatant, but then he wasn't entirely in his right mind… No, Orion is not above bribery. If it works, it works…**

**Team CFVY: I told you they'd be here! They'll be popping up again, no worries, and sometime he'll hang out with them individually. Yes he dodged Coco's swing, but Coco and the others aren't badass incarnate yet (give them about half a year) and he had the advantage in that situation. As he admitted, he would easily lose that fight, even if he fired both greaves right into Coco at that point as if he was lucky that would knock her out, but in true best-case would more than likely just send her flying back while her team rushes him and hands him his ass. The topic I came up with was interesting to me: I mean, you have people like Roman and Neo who are pretty good fighters themselves, how did they learn such a thing?**

**Next chapter… I honestly have no plans, really. Aside from finishing that conversation with the twins and actually getting Orion his damn drink.**

**So Read! Review! Beware of angry females in your life!**


	23. Chapter 23

**RRC: Your faithful words inspire me! No, they really do. Because I'm a bit of a lazy ass, I don't write until after the first review, as I feel I need to reply to it. And then I figure since I'm writing anyway, I may as well start working on the story. So yeah, there's that.**

**FreezingReality: As Orion interacts more with the cast, he will in time develop more quirks. Also, the concussion rattled his brain and cut off his mental filter. As Blake **_**is**_ **attractive and one of the few times he's seen her has been when she's satisfying herself, he was admittedly a bit… off. Yes, the interaction between Dust, Aura, and **_**every other**_ **supernatural power out there will be… **_**fun,**_ **to piece together. I have an idea for some of it, though.**

**GeassDragon: *gives cookie* The only OC is Orion. Kuma and Tony are repurposed already existing characters that he **_**rarely**_ **interacts with, any other OCs have been brief throwaway characters. Absolutely everyone else? RWBY cast. There might be more OCs, there's only so many characters Orion can interact with in the RWBY cast without it A. being odd the social circles he wanders and B. it starts getting repetitive.**

**Raidentensho: I never thought of that. Briefly, perhaps, but I will state it clearly: this fic is Arkos. The halberd, Venator, will be a single weapon with a collapsed form and a secondary form. I… have never seen Kamen Riders, I will admit. And possibly on the cold milk thing, we'll see. Blake is kind of easy for me to poke fun at, but as she retaliates violently…**

**Vixy: That was a typo that I fixed by the time you read this. Thank you Vixy. And yes, Ozpin has pocket dimension. Why? BECAUSE HE IS OZPIN. Neo's "speech" are marked by *asterisks*, all other instances of thought or speech are Orion. Yes, that is Orion's other fear: with nothing to maintain his old personality aside from his unnaturally strong soul, what is to prevent the rewrite of a new one with new memories? Herbal cookie, definitely, with a MUCH stronger effect on feline type faunus. Like, aphrodisiac-level effect. I have no shame, I know. Adam was off doing Adam things, also expect Orion running his mouth like to happen whenever he gets a head injury he remains conscious through. As Blake is trained quite well, we'll probably see repeats of this. And while everything you have stated is true, Orion was still outnumbered, in CQC with a mostly CQC team, and once Coco recovered she would've torn him apart with that BS handbag of hers. Seriously, HOW DOES SHE CARRY A GATLING GUN ONE HANDED? But yeah, the point is he wouldn't've walked away, which would be much sadness. Yes, as while Huntsmen be the focus of RWBY, we have characters who can fight at that same level WITHOUT being Huntsman themselves. That'll be a recurring theme, as this fic is essentially following a character who will be a powerful combatant WITHOUT Huntsman training.**

**tri2: *gives cookie* Thank you for your support!**

**edus: Yes… YOU WILL ALL SEE! *dramatic lightning in the background***

**Selias: *gives cookie* Well, that's a point towards Neo then. I have a little list I keep track in. Neo **_**does**_ **have a cult following, however, so I am tempted to **_**not**_ **write Neo to give the Malachites more love. Actually, that'll lead into a comment right before the title…**

**Chaosstripe: Thank you for understanding what I was explaining! The option is in the air, and it may be interesting.**

**Umbrardor: *gives cookie* I'm ignoring everything else in your review for my sanity.**

**Chris: I had wondered where you disappeared too! Ah, please PM me with specific stuffs, but I'm glad you like the story! (And are blunt about the bad things in it). I am still improving and experimenting with different things, and while a lot of readers seemed to enjoy the perspective shifting, you're the first to point out that it was kind of awkward. I'll try to be more careful with that.**

**Observer: NO. NO HAREM. Either a sole pairing or polyamorous relationship, BUT NO HAREM. too many of those….**

**Tenshi-san: Yes, yay magic. I'm still wondering what exactly I'm going to do with it, but there will be elements of magic popping up. And who knows with Ozpin? He's Ozpin. Yes, Qrow is becoming more epic, but in my headcanon, he's an absolute monster. Because he taught Ruby, who is extremely powerful in her own right, and is a close confidant of Ozpin and Ironwood.**

**Moose: *gives cookie* I shall consider your words**

**Chris again: Soo… that first reply to ya, was to the first review and kind of the second. This one is to the review you made on chapter 22. I will keep heed of your words (I have read Mass Vexations, not in a long time though) and I plan to be a little different on how to implement the AU stuff then Herr Wozzeck. Orion does indeed have a few issues, and yes he could border on sociopathy. *shrug* However, this is balanced by his sixth sense doubling as a powerful empathic ability, so he's still connected in a manner to the emotions of others. And the pairing thing… while admittedly I am somewhat ambivalent to the issue, Orion, who is kind of in my head and poking me repeatedly, is not. If you can't figure out how that statement works, just pretend that a part of me isn't ambivalent and wants to see romance for itself.**

**Socialiter Ineptissimus: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy! Hope you do stick around, always glad to see others enjoy the product of my insanity.**

**Amused: *gives cookie* It's nowhere near that powerful. Even if he could, his mind would more than likely filter it out before he realized what he was sensing.**

**KingArthur: *gives cookie* That is a bit impressive, this isn't exactly a short fic. That you read to the end implies you like it, so glad you enjoy!**

**TLBL: *gives cookie* I appreciate your words! Read below for the pairing things.**

**Lightsbane: But what if it doesn't have a face? *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy.**

**geoffrey: *gives cookie* Too lazy to go change that. And I'm glad you enjoy! I ripped it a little bit from Persona 4, admittedly, however unlike the characters of P4, Orion is already aware and accepting of his Shadow. He **_**consciously**_ **keeps it out of his normal personality, hence it's existence, but he doesn't refute that he has flaws. And Orion's communication with Neo is keeping her interest positive. If that's actually positive or not remains to be seen. And I have yet to play the Citadel DLC. Spoil nothing!**

**Anyone else is being ignored as they're not helpful/making comments I already said I would ignore.**

**Onwards, we boldly charge into the unknown! Let's see… Oh right, now I remember where we left off. For those who don't, or who don't feel like checking last chapter…**

"_So, Opal…" I looked at Melanie through my peripheral vision as she spoke; a feral smirk adorned her face as she stared at me. "What's this we hear about Neo sleeping with you when you last visited?" On my other other side, Miltia's face was completely impassive. However, I _knew _how irritated she was through her soul._

This…. could be bad. Junior, you traitor!

**Think Fast, Talk Fast, Pray for Luck**

_Ok, Orion, calm down, this is salvageable… Mainly because you didn't _do _anything aside from sleep, and now you're regretting it because now you're getting accosted for doing something and FOCUS._

"Sooo…. Junior told you that I'm assuming?" I spoke as calmly as I could, but considering I could see Melanie was wearing her heels with a dangerous look in her eyes (dangerous, not angry) and Miltia actually had her claws out, I was fairly impressed with myself to not have a tremor in my voice. Melanie's smirk simply grew.

"Junior, the security watching the cameras, Neo herself…" I restrained the urge to facepalm, as Miltia's irritation grew with each person listed by Melanie and I needed to keep an eye on them both.

"So… I'm going to perfectly clear here. While Neo and I slept in the same bed, that's it. Nothing else." Melanie's smirk didn't fade. I think she was having far too much with this conversation. And winding up her sister. _Fuuuck me…_

"Come now, _Opal_." She damn near purred my name. Yep, way too much fun with this. "Even we have succumbed to Neo's charms. She is _quite_ skilled, and while we regret the circumstances, we don't regret the incident _too_ much." Neo with the Malachites? _Huh, that's an interesting thought-FOCUS BEFORE YOU GET GUTTED._

"Seriously, Melanie, Mil. Nothing happened. Neo tried, but I was able to convince her to give up." _Junior, I know you're there, help me damnit you traitor!_ Miltia spoke up this time. Actually spoke, but I think that's because the only people here were us and Junior. Everyone else had… cleared.. out. _Oh you fucking traitors._

"Care to explain, then, why we got a message from Neo _explicitly _detailing your skill in bed and what you did with her?" To prove her point, Melanie had brought out her scroll and opened the message, holding it up for me to read while Miltia easily let her irritation slip into her voice. My eye began to twitch as I read through the message. The _extremely explicit _and _highly detailed_ message, making me wonder if Neo writes erotica in her spare time.

"All lies. Complete and total lies." Melanie just continued to smirk.

"Oh _really_? So you're horrible in bed?" I made a move to protest, then paused.

"... There's no good answer to that question is there?" Miltia was the one to respond.

"Not really, no." I sighed, discreetly activating Opug. _So glad I built it with stealth in mind when I wanted to equip it._

"Aaaand you're both going to attack me regardless of what I say." Melanie stole her sister's normal habit of one-word answers.

"Yep." _Fucking awesome._ I rolled my eyes, before slamming my hands on the counter.

"All right then." My eyes narrowed as I pressed down on the counter. "Let's get this over with." With that said, I fired a shot from my right greave, my left foot hooking onto the bar stool I was sitting on (thankfully not bolted down), flinging myself in a backflip away from the bar. I twisted in mid-air and launched the stool up above me, twisting again to land on my feet before catching the stool in my hands. In front of me, the twins had gotten up from their seats and stood next to each other, facing me down, Melanie with that infuriating feral smirk at finally getting a chance to have at me without any interference, Miltia with an irritated scowl on her face.

_Let's see… I am confident against one twin or the other, but both at once? No, far less confidence, before I even count that they are amazing tag team fighters. On the other hand, I have more weaponry, technically, more Aura for sure, and I currently have range in the form of a bar stool. _A heartbeat as we stared each other down. _Damn, this is going to suck._

Miltia made the first move, lunging forward with an overhead slash from her right hand I hastily blocked, before maneuvering to dodge as her other hand swung up from her side to swipe at me from below. The clash of metal upon metal rang out as Miltia pressed me with her claws, me barely deflecting or blocking her blows. So apparently irritated Miltia is a dangerous Miltia, awesome. _Severely underestimated close quarters agility she possesses! On the other hand…_ I blocked another before pushing back, harshly, sending the red twin stumbling back before forcing her to flip away from a recoil-powered kick. I took the chance to plant the stool on the ground for a moment and activate Caestus, armoring my hands and wrists. _I posses more brute strength. My only damn saving grace._ I chuckled grimly as Miltia steadied herself and glared at me. Wait… _where did-shit!_ I spun, grabbing back up the stool, and narrowly deflected a swing from Melanie's bladed heel. No time to hesitate, I manipulated the bar stool in my hands to deflect multiple kicks from the white twin, idly wondering why the stool hadn't been torn to bits yet. Unfortunately, my inattention cost me, as I stumbled forward after getting kicked in the back by Miltia, allowing Melanie to land a kick, thankfully with none-bladed side of her heels, to send me flying away, skidding along the ground.

I bit back several curses, as while I do have more brute strength, somehow, legs are three times as powerful as arms, and Melanie is a leg-based fighter _anyway._ Essentially, that fucking hurt. _They scored solid hits on _Yang_, an older and more experienced Yang. Of course this wasn't going to be easy. _That was all the time I had to think, as Melanie appeared in my vision, causing me to roll before her aerial heel-drop hit me. Balancing on one arm, I fired Opug, gathering momentum to spin to my feet, hands up. Immediately after I got to my feet, I was assaulted by multiple blows from Miltia's claws that I fended off with the blades on Caestus. _Tch, as expected, I'm only barely on their level, I'm getting pretty heavily pressed here._ A flash in my mind-_the twins landing multiple kicks on Yang_\- had me leaning back from a sudden movement of Miltia's as she launched a high kick at me, narrowly avoiding it. I retaliated with a kick of my own, enhanced by the recoil of a shotgun blast that barely clipped her shoulder, Still, considering the amount of force in my own blows, that was enough to throw her off-balance, which I quickly capitalized on by slamming my foot down and unleashing a heavy punch to her solar plexus, sending her stumbling back, out of air. Before I could do anything else, though, I ended up being forcibly rolled forward by a powerful blow to my head from behind. Rolling back up to my feet, I made to hold where I was hit… only to pause, as I felt no pain. I turned to face Melanie, scowling, as she brought her leg down from the kick.

"Why do all the hot women in my life keep attacking me?" A moment's pause as Melanie, and Miltia, just blinked several times in confusion at my statement. I sighed and resisted the urge to facepalm. "Great, so I have a concussion. Again. Seriously, sexy women attacking me gets old really fast." Melanie spoke up, a faint blush at her face.

"Why are you _saying that in __**the middle of a fight?!**_" I gave her my most deadpan look.

"Because when I'm suffering from a concussion, I have no brain filter and essentially freely speak my thoughts, regardless of what they are. I personally find it amusing, the hot women I've seen naked or near-naked… not so much." Both of them were blushing at being reminded of that incident. "Going to note now as I'm probably going to get my ass kicked anyway… One of the greatest moments in my time here. Seriously. You both have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of." That only increased their blushes. Miltia spoke this time.

"You realize that we now have even more reason to kick your ass right?" I shrugged, uncaring.

"I don't exactly have a choice. Absolutely no filters whatsoever. Besides, you're _already_ trying to kick my ass, and Melanie has held a grudge for _quite_ some time, whatever I say now can't possibly make it worse." Melanie blinked, suddenly aware of something while Miltia fumed at my rebuke of her statement.

"Why do you sound like you're not in any pain? Concussions tend to hurt, a lot." I blinked a few times myself.

"I… have no idea? Recently I seem to just not suffer any pain from head wounds. Everything else I do, but not blows to the head. I just chalk it up to another oddity of being me, same as having large aura reserves, a surprising amount of knowledge for someone my age, and constantly being surrounded by beautiful women who are perfectly capable of kicking my ass and generally try to at least once, with the exception of Neo, who is also incredibly sexy and _goddamnit I need to stop talking._" The twins both nodded, scowling. I sighed again. "So, in my defense, and in yours I suppose, Neo has absolutely nothing on the two of you, partially because you are twins, which is awesome in it's own right, and _wow okay _let's go back to fighting now." The twins simply rushed me, still scowling but also with flaming cheeks, and then all thought went back to fighting as Melanie pulled ahead of her twin and launched a kick at my head that I narrowly dodged by backstepping. She then spun and launched another kick, aimed at my shin, only to stagger back as I brought my foot to meet hers, the clash ending in my favor as I had more mass to bring to bear.

"I wear these for armor first, weapon second!" I crowed as I stepped forward and struck Melanie in her chest, blade retracted, sending her stumbling before I grabbed her arm and spun, throwing her away from me so I would only have to deal with one twin at a time (this was with Aura covering my arms, I threw her for _distance_). I hissed out a curse as I staggered forward, the cause being a kick from Miltia that caused me to stumble before I could turn around. I brought up a leg and fired behind me, allowing me to spin and see that Miltia had blocked the blast with her claws, but at least she had stopped for a moment, buying me time to face her down. Miltia gave me a cocky little smirk as she assumed a stance, watching as I took my own.

"Since we're being so honest apparently, I will freely admit that you're not unattractive yourself. Perhaps we could see if what Neo wrote to us was true later?" I blinked, my guard dropping for a moment.

"Seriously? I thought I was the one with-_shit!_" I ducked under a claw swipe and narrowly deflected another. Panicked clashing of metal upon metal, at least panicked on my part, as Miltia renewed her assault, taking advantage of my lull in attention. "Mil, you cheater! Not cool, you're way too hot for that to _not_ work!" Miltia's smirk just grew as she launched another few swipes before planting her boot in my gut, hard, sending me stumbling back gasping for air.

"All's fair in love and war, _Opal~_" Her voice came out as a purr, and _goddamnit I do not need this right now! _Mentally slapping myself to focus, I rushed forward, deflecting two claws swipes before wrapping my arms around hers and dragging her in close, damn near pressing against me. She merely tilted her head at me, a bit nervous at the sudden closeness. "Being this close to me isn't a good idea. It'll only encourage Melanie to hurt you even more, and it's not like you can hit me from here."

"Actually, I can, it's just a massively stupid idea. Oh well, lack of brain filter, sorry Mil." After the quick apology, I reared my head back. Panic enveloped her expression as it dawned what I was about to do before I slammed my head into hers, causing her to reel back as I relinquished her arms. I stepped forward, slamming my armored palms onto either side of her head, causing her eyes to briefly lose focus. A recoil-enhanced left knee slammed into her gut, doubling her over. I moved rapidly, spinning to be behind her before wrapping my arms around her and slamming her in a suplex. I let her go and straightened back up, sighing. "Hopefully, that'll get her to stop attacking me. Now, where did-_why the hell do you have knives?_"

Halfway through my musing I had caught sight of Melanie. A _very_ pissed off Melanie, with a pair of combat knives in hand. Combat knives that she held in a manner speaking of long experience. _Motherfucker_. She was more than likely not amused by her sister being laid out on the floor. There was a _lot_ of rage in her eyes, and a bit of fear? The hell?

Then I had no time to think as I hastily leaned out of the range of a knife-swipe, before blocking a stab with my gauntlet that had me take a step back. _If that had actually hit me-!_ Another step back as she unleashed a roundhouse kick at my head, blade first, before raising my right arm to block another slash. Cue a blur of violence that essentially boiled down to me blocking whatever I could of Melanie's bladed assault, in the process getting covered by numerous small cuts from whenever I couldn't fully dodge or deflect a blow. It was insane, she was moving faster than she ever had before, leaving me no time to even try to strike back, and I was expending a lot of my Aura simply to keep up with her, let alone blunt the blows that actually landed. The only reason I wasn't bleeding from heavier wounds was the sheer expenditure of Aura, along with the fact that my 'weapons' were originally designed off of armor instead of true weaponry, serving their purposes better as defensive tools than offensive ones. Finally, after ducking under another roundhouse blow, I had a chance. I jumped on it, firing Opug and slamming a kick into Melanie's torso, sending her away from me by a good bit and knocking the air out of her for a moment. Breathing hard, I brought my leg down and stared as she got back to her feet, knives in a white-knuckled grip.

"The hell Melanie? This wasn't bad at first, but you're seriously trying to maim me here! I thought you had gotten over your grudge!" At first the girls hadn't been fighting me that seriously. I knew that; if they both were serious from the start, I would be in a _lot_ more pain than I currently was. After I had landed a few effective blows on Miltia, though, Melanie had practically gone berserk. That, with the addition of the combat knives to her fighting style, had just made my situation that much worse. I wasn't even sure that I'd win, or walk away with minor injuries. She evidently wasn't listening to anyone. As I was considering my very short list of options on what to do next, a red blur slammed into Melanie, pinning her to the ground. I blinked in surprise to see Miltia restraining her own sister.

"Junior! Get Opal out of here!" I hadn't been paying attention, and so let out a startled yelp as Junior lifted me into a fireman's carry and bolted to the vehicle garage as fast as he could, leaving the two twins, one cursing and struggling, the other silent and unmoving, on the ground behind us.

* * *

The car ride was silent for a time. After our hasty exit, Junior had dropped me into one of his cars and told me he was giving me a ride home. I wasn't in the best of shape to argue, so didn't. I was still confused about what set Melanie off like that; she wasn't even that pissed off when I accidentally saw her and her sister half-clothed. Finally, though, Junior spoke up.

"I owe you an apology." I turned my head to look at the man who was resolutely watching the road. "While I knew Melanie and Miltia had decided to simply use the incident with Neo as an excuse for an informal spar, I hadn't expected for all of that to happen. The two wanted to see how much stronger they had gotten since the incident in Vacuo, and figured you'd be the best judge as you were the one who saw them fight there. Neo and the monkey did as well, but the latter has already went off to Mistral while Neo is a bad opponent to ever test your strength against." I snorted at that. Neo was one of the few people in this world I would freely admit would beat the hell out of me without getting scratched, even if I did have firearms and explosives to help.

"They have improved. Or knocked off the rust, I'm guessing? Melanie was _damn_ good with those knives, and I highly doubt she incorporated those into her combat style on a whim. She knew _exactly_ what she was doing with those." Junior stayed silent for a moment.

"The twins have gotten a little rusty, with nothing to truly push them to improve or keep their old edge. Those two have their own name in the underworld, much as Neo does. But that isn't my place to tell." I raised an eyebrow at him, though he didn't see it.

"Can you at least tell me what set off Melanie? I could swear she was trying to kill me, legitimately kill me, at the end there. She's always been a bit hostile, but she's never gone that far before." Silence. The streetlights we passed by giving us an occasional illumination, allowing me to see Junior's face. It was completely devoid of expression, which was unusual, as he rarely held that expression. On the other hand, I could feel _worry?_ From him about the incident. Finally, after a great deal of time, he heaved a sigh.

"Either of the twins react badly when the other is hurt. When you landed that series of blow on Miltia, clean blows, cleaner than anything I've seen hit them in a while… It set Melanie off. She more than likely _was_ trying to kill you at that point. Be thankful Miltia recovered as quickly as she did, as I doubt I'd have been able to hold Melanie back for too long at that point, as at that point she can barely discern friend from foe." I gave him a sharp look which he did catch in his peripheral. "Yeah, she would have attacked me, just as seriously as she attacked you, for trying to stop her. Be _very_ thankful Miltia apparently cares enough about you to hold her back." I just stared, surprised.

"But… You're their boss. And they seem to be somewhat fond of you regardless." Junior shrugged.

"Yeah. But those two have been through some serious hell. I know more than most about their life, and I only less than maybe half, more likely a quarter of their lives. They don't actually trust anyone aside from each other, they give me _maybe_ a bit of trust, and that's because I damn near go out of my way for them." The big man fell silent for a moment. "You can probably tell better than most, but you check their eyes… They've gone through more than anyone should ever have to."

I held my tongue. The twins Aura only spoke of their current moods at any given time, not anything about their past. But he was right. Their eyes, through a bright green in coloration… were dark in nature. They had seen things that would scar anyone, and while they did not come out the worst for it, they didn't exactly come out for the better for it either. It was something I had tried to ignore, as it clashed with my view of RWBY, a brighter view based on what little I can remember of the anime from what felt like so long ago, and from the interactions I had with the sisters I lived with. But the eyes of the twins… of Neo… even old Qrow had a darkness in his eyes that he kept from his nieces. I noticed it pretty quickly after meeting the man. He didn't explain. I didn't ask. Junior spoke up again.

"Opal… for your sake, and theirs, don't press them on their history. Most of what I know is word-of-mouth, and from serving as their employer for two years. They don't like talking about it, they don't like anyone bringing it up… And they tend to react violently if anyone keeps pushing them about it." His voice spoke of experience. I nodded.

"Some things are better left alone… 'Don't poke a sleeping bear' and all." Junior let out a bark of laughter.

"How fitting. I'll have to remember that one." Finally we pulled up to where I lived. I stepped out of the car, giving a thankful nod to Junior he returned. "I'd advise staying away for a few days until Melanie cools down. I'll have Miltia contact you when you're good to come by again."

"Thanks Junior. I'll see ya around."

* * *

"Now Yang, seriously, there's no need to be angry…"

"You think I'm mad?" The blond chuckled. "No no…" Her eyes flashed to a brilliant scarlet red as her hair lit up like the sun. _Fuuuck… _"I am **furious!** How dare they attack you like that?" I raised my hands as a gesture of peace towards the very angry blond. Ruby and Qrow… Well Qrow was sipping his coffee at the table. Ruby was designing something on her scroll… That I will more than likely have to get her to delete later judging by the not so happy look in her eyes. _Huh. Apparently Ruby does get upset. And protective. Well, considering "Mama Bear" is the closest female to her she can model herself after…_

"Yang, it was just a spar. Seriously." So, last night, I did manage to sneak past the sisters. Qrow knew I had come in, but didn't care, as he didn't greet me. I went to bed, after making sure my wounds were all healed because otherwise Yang would raise hell and would possibly raze Junior's club to the ground on my behalf. While touching, this is something I am trying to avoid. I like Junior. And the drinks. The music is nice too, I suppose. What I had forgotten when I woke up this morning was my bad habit of going to sleep in the clothes I wear if I'm tired enough, which I was, essentially emptying, or damn near emptying, my Aura reserves to heal myself. Thus, leading to Yang and Ruby seeing my bloodstained cut up clothes. Which leads to now, me trying to convince Yang to not go on the warpath after being forced to explain what had happened to me last night. On the bright side, I had gotten a message from Tukson that I apparently wasn't to come in today. And I had his sympathies (asshole, the day off is nice, but the rest of his message was very irritating. Completely going to sic Blake on him. Wait, no, Blake still needs her cookies… Adam then).

"Orion, 'just a spar' does not lead to ruined clothing and spilled blood! Not unless you're severely outclassed or sparring past your limits, both of which you know better!" Huh, I feel appreciated. Course, that does me no good, as Yang is ballistic. And the only reason she isn't heading there right now is because I'm between her and her bike. And that she apparently doesn't want to accidentally injure me seriously when moving me aside (in her current state, very likely, as Yang can muster a ridiculous amount of brute force when her Semblance kicks in)."That was an honest attempt to seriously hurt you!"

"Yang, sparring always lead to ruined clothing when fighting someone with a blade. It's why I don't use mine on you." She blinked, apparently not realizing that. "Well, ok, it doesn't, in most cases, but as I still don't have instinctive use of Aura, my clothing is going to get shredded if I fight someone with a blade. Period. Secondly, spars can lead to ruined clothing and spilled blood." I paused, and considered it. "Generally, not as much on the latter and far more on the former than my current situation, but the point still remains." Ruby looked up from her scroll.

"How does that happen?" Thankfully, on this topic Yang and I had similar thoughts and so replied in-sync.

"Tell you when you're older, Rubes/Ruby." The youngest person in the room began to pout, causing us to immediately avert our attention elsewhere. Qrow can deal with that BS, I am not touching that with a ten foot pole. Thankfully, the distraction had calmed Yang down. Somewhat.

"Look, Yang, you're not going over there, and wrecking the place. First of all, because I happen to like the place and I'm not going to let you." Yang cocked an eyebrow at me at the thought of me actually stopping her. "Second of all, if you went there all gung-ho, you wouldn't get off as lightly as I did. Melanie would have mauled me if Miltia hadn't stepped in and held her back and Junior had gotten me out of there. Doing what you're about to do? All of them, and the rest of the crew, would tear into you, and you're not quite good enough to take all of them on and get away unscathed." Actually, she might be, but like hell I would tell her that right now, it wouldn't help sell my point.

"Aren't you the least bit upset that she tried to, as you said, **maim you**?" Yang's eyes were still burning crimson, but at least her hair was back to normal.

"I am, actually, and it's something I'll deal with later." Like a week from now, when Melanie has cooled off a touch. "The point of that being something I'll deal with, as it's really dangerous for you to do so."

"And it isn't dangerous for you to freely interact with criminals willing to maim you?!"

"As the grand majority of them like me, no, not really. There's a reason I try to keep you guys away from my friends and acquaintances who operate in the grey area of the law." I pointed at Qrow. "I don't bother with him as he knows the grand majority I interact with anyway. If there was an actual problem he would have brought it up with me by now."

_Aside from the Neo thing, but there's really nothing anyone can do about that…_

Yang let out a huff as her eyes slowly trickled back to their natural color. "Fine, I won't go cause trouble." _Finally…_ "You're taking me out to breakfast though!" She declared suddenly, hands on her hips. I just blinked a few times, as did Ruby and Qrow. I finally found my voice in response to her rather brazen statement.

"Uhmm… Sure?" Yang positively beamed at me.

"Great! Let's go!" And with that she grabbed my arm and dragged me outside.

_Wasn't she just in a towering rage? Women are weird…._

* * *

"So why did you drag me out of the house?" Yang had plopped me right behind her on her bike and then sped into town towards, what she claimed, 'one of the greatest breakfast places, ever'. I wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to argue, so we ended up at it. The place was actually a quaint little local cafe that I couldn't be bothered to remember the name of. Yang and I ended up claiming a spot away from the counter and door, giving us a little bit of quiet. Yang and I had already ordered, and were currently sipping at our respective drinks waiting for our food. "It can't be just because you wanted food that you didn't have to make." If it was for that, I could've just cooked. Or bribed Ruby to unleash her pout on Qrow to do it, either or.

"Honestly? I needed to talk with you, away from Ruby and Qrow." Yang's reply was blunt as always.

"What about?" Yang frowned, putting down her drink.

"It's worrying us, Ruby and I, that you constantly end up in risky situations. A gang war in Vacuo? A Grimm Plant?! Hell, you were just attacked while out drinking at what we figured was a friendly place!" I raised an eyebrow as her eyes slipped into crimson from her outburst.

"Yang, don't burn down the nice little cafe. At least not until we get our food." To her credit, the blond assumed a sheepish expression as she took a few deep breaths, slowly returning her eyes to a normal color. "And is that rather hypocritical? You're training to fight soulless monsters, and you're younger than me." Yang glared at me.

"I've been training for far longer, and signed up for it. You're a bookstore employee, you shouldn't be getting into these types of situations!" I sighed exasperatedly, sipping from my water.

*A bookstore employee who is technically the apprentice of a veteran Huntsman, and is constantly surrounded by multiple combat trained persons who give advice freely and willingly spar when asked." The only not combat capable friend I had was Tukson. And he was capable, just not to the same level as the grand majority of people I associate with. _Hell, _I _could probably beat Tukson in a fight. I know for damn sure I'd probably kick eight shades of shit out of Jaune, but that's hardly a decent benchmark. ... And now I feel bad for insulting the kid. Note to self: track down scraggly blond and teach how to fight. _Yang huffed at me, annoyed.

"You're barely on the level of a second year Signal student yourself," which I figured was rather impressive for only a few months, but then the Rose - Xiao Long family were far from normal caliber people, even when it comes to teaching, "and you consistently end up in troubles a Beacon student would be expected to handle. Most of the time you get out by the skin of your teeth, Aura depleted. That isn't normal Orion!"

I shrugged. "The world isn't sunshine and roses, Yang, despite what Ruby wants to believe. I know you're not unaware of that. What, do you expect me to stop associating with them just because it's dangerous?" Yang seemed to actually be mulling over that idea. "That isn't happening Yang, forget it."

The bombshell blond pouted at them. "Every dangerous situation you've been in is because of that bar!"

"The incident with the Grimm wasn't, and neither was the crap in my soul." I held my hands up in surrender as she scowled at me. "Alright, fine, you have a point. They're not exactly the safest of friends to have, but the only one who doesn't like me is Melanie. The rest would probably help me if I ran into some trouble." _Until I lost Neo's interest, she would too. Which is not that comforting, come to think of it._

"Ruby and I would too! It's not even probably, we would rush into danger to help you!" I blinked at the blatant declaration

"Really? It's not like I've been here that long. I know you have a ton of friends too, so while I can kind of understand Ruby latching onto me so fast", yay social awkwardness that I easily ignore, "that doesn't explain why you're so concerned for me."

"Ruby sees you like a big brother. Dad isn't around much, and while Qrow tries he's not good at the feelings thing. There's only so much big sis Yang can help, and you constantly talking with her is helping her get out of her shell." Which I already put together. Ruby isn't that hard to figure out, once you get past the shyness. Despite her high intelligence and prodigy like nature, she's just a kid. A kid with a somewhat unhealthy obsession over lethal weaponry, but so long as you indulge her curiosity and talk to her about her likes (and bribe liberally with sweets) she's really easy to get along with.

"That much I already knew. That doesn't explain why you're so close to me." Yang averted her eyes as she sipped from her coffee.

"Because you're Ruby's first real friend and I really don't want to see her becoming disheartened when and if you end up hospitalized from the stupid crap you end up in?" Hmn. While a rather forceful statement, I could tell that wasn't all to it.

"Yang, don't lie to me. You know I can tell, especially when it comes to you." She gave a nervous chuckle.

"Because you're my roommate and I do happen to consider you a friend?" I simply stared at her.

"Try again. Or I'm ditching you here." Yang eyes widened at the threat, before she sighed and slumped in her seat.

"Fine. Yeah, I'm popular, but I know a great deal of that is guys wanting to play with these." At her words she groped her chest briefly. I didn't even blink, I've seen her (and several other women) nude, it would take more than that to get to me. "The girls all want to be my friend because my hotness draws in the guys they want to date. I'm surrounded by shallow people who want to be friends because of only my appearance."

I sipped from my water, not entirely surprised. It's kind of like Pyrrha's issue, of being blessed to the point normal people see her as unapproachable. In Yang's case, she's blessed to the point that people want to use her, more attracted by her appearance than intimidated. "I know you have a few friends that don't care about your looks." Yang chuckled morosely, a hollow sound.

"I wish. Nope, I only have shallow friends who stay around me for my body more than anything else." Ouch. It would explain why Yang so quickly bonded with her teammates and team JNPR, despite the brief glimpse we saw of her friends in the first season. If what she's saying is true, then she most likely went along with her "friends" then so as to force Ruby to interact with people. How dedicated. "I was kind of ok with that. I knew that eventually, a few of them would actually try to get to know me, the real me. I had that hope until near the end of last year."

"What happened?" Yang really wasn't the sort to get troubled by something minor. She was a fairly laid back person like myself, if a bit more upbeat. Her mood grew sour as I felt her Soul reflect her emotions quick downturn.

"I don't like talking about it. Let's just say I lost a lot of respect for people." Fair enough. I wasn't going to push, as that would get me punched. "After that, I just resigned myself to not having any real friends for a while, at least not until I joined Beacon." That's one upside to the Team system. Forced bonding between people, lifelong bonds at that. Before she could continue, however, our food arrived, and a mutual silent agreement was made to continue this later as we dug in.

Yang remained quiet even after our meal, instead having me pay before dragging me back to her bike. She drove down the road, not speaking up and I held my tongue, knowing instinctively that this wasn't something to be rushed. Finally she pulled to a stop at the park, which was strangely empty for the time of day. _It's only early morning, though I suppose most kids wouldn't leave their house until later in the morning…_ We walked down one of the paths, listening to a few birds before finally stopping next to a bench. Yang twirled around to face me while I sat down. "Right, so where was I?"

"You have crappy friends?" That was the bluntest way for me to sum up what she had said so far, and she grimaced.

"Right. I remember. Continuing from there, I didn't expect to build any meaningful relationships for quite some time. With Ruby's own ineptitude when it comes to social matters, I doubted she would either, so I admittedly began to dote on her a lot, not that she minded." The blonde shrugged. "As Qrow isn't exactly the best at social aptitude and dad isn't home often, no one really could tell how much the two of us were going through the motions." I raised a hand.

"Question. Where the hell is your dad? I figured he'd be worried about some strange guy living at your place." Yang waved her hand dismissively.

"Long-term mission. He's cool with it, since Qrow keeps him updated and anyone sane is terrified of provoking my uncle. Ruby isn't aware of that, but I am, and you're not insane." I nodded.

"Fair point. Continue." Yang took in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment.

"So you have me, the 'popular' girl with a bunch of 'friends', and her prodigy socially awkward sister, both living with their uncle the teacher and veteran. No one looked harder, no one really cared. Then you literally fell into our lives." Her eyes opened, and I could see in them a roaring flame. _Her soul, when not enraged…_

"Ruby has someone she can talk to now without worrying about them judging her, someone who indulges in her quirks as if they're normal." _To be entirely fair, I have a feeling I had odder friends before..._ "Qrow is interacting more with us by extension of you, showing concern about our well-being and grades." She paused again, and I slowly stood from the bench, raising an eyebrow as I straightened myself to my full height, only looking down a touch to meet her eyes.

"And what about you Yang? How have you changed?" A light blush came over her face.

"I have an actual friend. Someone who doesn't care about my looks, one who can see I'm only pretending. We fought alongside each other in our _souls,_ for Dust's sake! You honestly care about me, the real me, and it's… different." I tilted my head.

"Different bad?" She shook her head, blush still on her face.

"No. Different good." Her eyes took on a bit of a red hue. "Until you factor in you CONSTANTLY getting into trouble, and worrying me endlessly!" I raised my hands defensively, taking a small step away from Yang.

"Hey now, we already discussed that I'm as careful as I can be, and that's not even factoring in Qrow and you two training me." I paused, studying her. Not just her body, but even deeper, reading her Aura. I frowned. "It's not just that, is it?" Yang looked away from me, shoulders tense. I stepped towards her and laid my hands on her shoulders. "Come on Yang. You and I can't really lie to one another."

"I'm worried about you beyond that." She quietly admitted. "What Ozpin implied…" I blanked for a moment, before feeling myself grow rather angry. Yang's eyes flashed up to my face, now concerned, as a bit of my Aura began to leak off my body.

"That bastard… so he keeps our discussion private, but doesn't mind telling other people afterward?" Ozpin had sealed himself and I in a _different dimension_, there's no way Yang would know anything about what we talked about unless he, or someone who works under him, told her. More than likely Glynda told her of Ozpin's suspicions while Ozpin had me in a separate space. Suddenly Yang _moved_, sending me to the ground while holding me rather close. Her sniffling immediately defused my rage. "Yang?"

"... I asked Glynda what all Ozpin might have been talking to you about. They believe you're going _insane,_ Orion. That you're going to stop caring. Do you know how much it hurts to contemplate my only damn friend turning into a psychopath?!" Jeez, she'll really broken up. _Damnit Ozpin, I didn't care if you poked me about it, but dragging Yang into it? That's just low._ I slowly wrapped my arms around her.

"Yang. Yang, look at me." She looked up from where she had buried her head in my chest, a bit red-eyed (the normal red-eyed, not the manifestation of her Semblance). "Yang, guys like Ozpin like to pretend they know everything. While I'll give him credit for knowing far more than he lets on more often than not, he's wrong in this case. I'm not going insane, and I still care about people." Yang blinked slowly.

"But… Glynda said without your old memories.." I sighed heavily.

"Yang, they're basing things off a _guess_. How many people can they possibly have interacted with in my sort of situation?" Yang did seem to contemplate that, looking a little better. "While yes I have lost my memories, I'm still me. I'm Ruby's friend, your friend, and the friend of several others. I am a man who is generally laid-back and though I will use violence, it is never without provocation." Yang frowned as a thought occurred to her, one that seemed to deeply trouble her.

"What happens if whatever brought you here happens again? What if you forget us, and don't want to come back?" I just gave her an easy smile.

"No way in hell. Unlike my old world, I have a physical reminder of you guys." At my words, I allowed a bit of Aura to infuse my arms, causing them to glow briefly. "And I didn't have the same bonds then as I do now." I chuckled. "We kind of linked souls Yang. There are very few forces in possible existence that can tear down a bond forged in that manner." Yang laughed a little, looking a little happier.

"I never thought of that. You have no idea how comforting that is." There was a brief silence of us laying on the grass. Huh, apparently Yang had tackled me off the path into the grass behind the bench. "Sooo... You're not going insane? Just to be clear here."

"No more than you are for listening to Ruby chatter about weaponry." That earned me a light punch to my shoulder and a mock scowl.

"No picking on Ruby. Bad Orion." I merely laughed, then let the silence fall again. I suddenly realized how _soft_ Yang was and coughed a bit suddenly.

"You going to let me up now?"

"Hmmm... Nope." I rolled my eyes.

"Why not?" Yang seemed to be thinking about something.

"Because moving would ruin something I've been meaning to do for a while." I blinked in confusion.

"Aaaand that would be?" Yang seemed to settle on something.

"This." And I suddenly found her lips on mine. Which I was not at all unhappy with, I was rather surprised. Still, I went with it and returned her kiss, wrapping my arms around her. We continued our action until we both pulled away, out of breath. Yang and I were both panting, though Yang's cheeks were rather red and she was smiling.

"Soo… That's what you've been meaning to do?" Yang's smile morphed into a smirk.

"Yep. You're not against it are you?" Before I could respond, I finally took notice of two presences above my head IE behind me, and one of them spoke up.

"I do hope we're not interrupting anything." I closed my eyes as Yang developed a full-on blush, thumping my head against the back of the ground. Now that I was paying attention, I knew exactly who was behind me.

"... Hi Blake. Hi Adam. Neither of you are getting drinks any more." The catgirl-in-hiding snickered as she flopped down to sit next to me and Yang, who had yet to get up (probably frozen in what seemed like mortification) while Adam grumbled incoherently as he shifted into a lazier stance, leaning against a nearby tree. "Seriously, we were having a moment, and you just ruined it. Horribly. You both suck majorly."

"Then try to not let the girls you know commit PDA, dumbass." That was Adam, who seemed amused with the whole thing. "And why am I getting cut off? I didn't do anything."

"That's exactly why you're getting cut off, you could have totally dragged Blake away. Not cool bro." Speaking of, she was still snickering. "Quit that, Blake, or I will spike your next batch of cookies."

"You're not stupid enough to think you can get away with that."

"Unfortunately." Finally Yang seemed to recover herself, and carefully sat back up, still straddling me, to look at the newcomers.

"Orion?" I sighed, not bothering to open my eyes.

"Yes Yang?" She shifted slightly, probably to be better able to view both of the newcomers. At least neither of them were armed, which would have been very bad. I was armed, as I always am, with Caestus and Opug, and I knew Yang had Ember Celica on her.

"Who are these two, and why am I not punching them?" I _felt_ Blake tilt her head, curiosity radiating from her.

"You never mentioned us to your friends? I thought we were _close,_ Orion." And cue Yang's anger. Right, time to defuse.s

"Blake, ninjas of love." Immediately Blake's emotions swapped from curiosity to raw rage, while Yang began snickering at what was more than likely a very bright blush across her face. "The girl is Blake, the jackass trying to stifle his chuckling is Adam. They're regulars at my work who I also happen to have blackmail on to balance out the fact that they can kick my ass." Adam and Blake were both glaring at me by this point. It was true. "Blake, Adam, meet Yang, my roommate. The one with the fire affinity and shotgun gauntlets. Who you just horribly embarrassed." Blake suddenly snickered.

"And you're not? She's still straddling you." I shrugged, finally opening my eyes.

"I have long since gotten past the point of giving a fuck. At least she's wearing clothes, this could have ended far worse. It's not like I'm uncomfortable. They have really good quality grass here, and Yang isn't actually heavy." Adam rolled his eyes at me from his position against the tree while Yang and Blake seemed to be evaluating each other. "So what's up? Pretty rare to see you guys outside of work."

Adam shrugged while Blake spoke up, still in a staring match with Yang. It wasn't hostile or anything on either end, just analytical. "Everyone has days off, Orion. We decided to relax by taking a walk through the park before people showed."

"Bullshit. Adam's an antisocial bastard and you're a hardcore bibliophile." Cue mini-rain clouds over their heads while Yang began to laugh at how quickly their mood fell. "Seriously, the only reason Adam hangs out with me is because I'm mildly entertaining and offer him free drinks."

"We had some other friends show up at our house and they were being irritating, so we left before a fight could start." Adam spoke, some of the irritation indeed seeping into his voice. I controlled my expression as I mentally thought over his words. _White Fang actively moving? That could be troublesome. They may just be laying low, though…_ "They'll be gone tomorrow, but in the meantime Blake and I would rather not deal with their antics. We had _hoped_ that the park would be abandoned…"

"Only to come across you two making out behind a park bench. Because that's not cliche or anything." Blake's tone was only mildly amused, finally reverting to her normal neutral that she talked with.

"Blake, I will shoot you. I know you can take a bullet." I turned my attention to Yang. "You going to get up any time soon?"

"Not until more people show up. Your friends don't seem to care that I'm practically straddling you." Adam snorted like the bull faunus he was at Yang's comment.

"We have a few faunus friends that are less than discreet when the mood strikes them. Again, we're staying away from the house." Yang blinked at that a few times while I chuckled dryly. Finally she spoke up, a pink tint on her cheeks as she followed her thoughts to the logical conclusion.

"Oh... that makes a lot of sense. Really wish it didn't." Blake gave her a flat look, and I could practically see her ears flattening under her bow (practically, actually couldn't, well done bow, but knowing what they looked like I could picture the image very well).

"Yeah... We wish we didn't either." I raised my hand and pointed at her.

"Is that why Adam and I walked in on you masturbating nude to 'Ninjas of Love'?" Cue instant red on both girls' faces and Adam's exasperated groan as he slammed his head into his hands, before glaring at me between his fingers.

"Damnit Orion, I had finally gotten that image out of my head! Now I need alcohol, _again._ You bastard." I chuckled lowly before realising there was a _lot_ of anger radiating at me... from both girls?

_Isn't Yang still straddling me? Ah fuck..._

"Any last words, _Orion_?" Blake's voice was quite menacing as she slowly got to her feet. Meanwhile, Yang's hair looked it was on fire. _Jealousy suuuucks... Right then._

"Just one thing?" I turned my attention to Adam, who had stood up straight once he could see how angry the two females were. "Be prepared my brother. For Feminine Fury™ is an unguided weapon." Adam was confused.

"Prepared for what?" At his words, I triggered Opug, which I had discreetly activated while Blake was getting to her feet, and shot out from between Yang's legs with the power of recoil, sending her tumbling to the ground. I quickly clambered to my feet while Yang did the same, Blake coming to stand beside her as Adam and I began to slowly back away. I clapped Adam on the shoulder with one hand and as he turned his attention to me, I gave him a thumbs up.

"Know that I appreciate your sacrifice." Adam's expression was still confused, before it slowly turned to confusion as my other hand grab him.

"Oh no, no way. Orion, don't you da-" Strengthening my arms with my vast reserve of Aura, my grip tightened and I spun, throwing him bodily at the girls.

**"Adam-doken!"** The bull faunus collided with both of them, sending all three to the ground. I immediately spun and hauled ass away from the tangle of cursing and screaming limbs. "I shall come back for you comrade!"

_Waaayyy later. His sacrifice shall not be in vain... Hopefully I run into someone friendly._

"Holy shit why are you two here?" I screeched to a halt far deeper in the park. In front of me were Ren and Nora, Nora messing around in the branches of the tree and Ren meditating in front of the lake the park held (There was a part with less trees, but that was the opposite side of the lake). Ren opened his eyes while Nora waved cheerfully from the branch she was hanging upside down from. "Nevermind, no time. You guys have gotta help me. I'm being chased by two women powered by Feminine Fury™." Ren calmly rose to his feet, dusting his pants off as he did so.

"That's normally not a problem for you." I stepped forward and grabbed him by his green shirt, getting him to quirk his eyebrow at me.

"One of them is a cat faunus." The sound of incoherent furious screams was heard and I paled. "Dude, help a brother out." Ren solemnly laid his hands on my shoulders.

"I understand. Nora!" The ever cheerful girl saluted from her position upside down on the tree. "Distract them!"

"Right!" I blinked. _How does that constitute as-_ My thoughts were cut off as Ren's hands tightened.

"I hope you can swim fast and hold your breath." _Oh there's no way..._ Immediately following his statement he turned and, with Aura infusing him, _flung _me into the lake. I flew a fair distance before I crashed into the water, barely able to remember to take a deep breath before plunging in.

_I did _not _plan on swimming today!_ To be fair it was an excellent idea. Blake wouldn't be able to track me by scent, and Yang's Semblance would 'cool down', as it were, upon contact with the water. I drew out of my thoughts as I felt Ren's presence approach. He gestured towards what I assumed was further away from land, and I followed him as he swam on.

"I can not _believe_ that worked. How did that work?" I asked my companion as we surfaced. I _felt_ Yang and Blake pausing at the area I was at before, before rapidly moving around the lake. So long as I went to the other side of where they were traveling at, I was golden. _No sign of Adam, that doesn't bode well... On the bright side, my sense is reaching out farther. Maybe I'm closer to my Semblance?_

"I can escape from Nora. Two angry women are nothing." Ren's reply was calm as he treaded water next to me. "Incidentally, did Nora leave?"

I gave him the best deadpan stare I could while treading water. "Really not helping the whole 'assassin training' thing there. As for Nora..." I closed my eyes and reached out. Funnily enough, Nora _felt _pink. Which was just a touch terrifying. "She went the other way from the girls. If we swim in," here I pointed, "that direction we'll meet up with her."

"Lead on then." And so we began to swim. After a moment Ren spoke up. "You asked before what we were doing here?" I cast a glance at him as we calmly swam towards his childhood friend.

"Yeah, if you don't mind telling me." Ren gave me the best approximation of a shrug that a man swimming through water can give.

"Nora likes exploring. The area you found us in is one of her favorites to return to, as there are plenty of trees to climb and it's secluded enough that most people don't bother going there, allowing me to meditate." I hummed in thought as we continued to swim.

"Hey what do you meditate on anyway? I know meditation is clearing your mind or whatever, but most people meditate for a reason." For a moment, the only sound was the _splash!_ of water we disrupted as we swam before he spoke up.

"Aura." I turned most of my attention to him as he spoke. "We refer to it as the soul made manifest, something that separates us from the Grimm. Yet we never see the Grimm attacking other animals, or the plants, and we know that those possess a limited amount of Aura. Most people in the world simply accept Aura as something that we'll only have limited understanding of. Some people in the world, my family included, don't accept that reasoning, and so we seek to understand Aura better."

I kept swimming, running over his words in my head. "That explains a _lot_... I'm not going to bother asking what all you may have figured out. Something like that seems... deeply personal, in a way. I'm surprised you're able to meditate so easily around Nora."

"After years of meditating, I am able to sense the Aura of others to a limited degree. The closer I am to a person, the better I can sense their Aura. Nora has one of the brightest I've ever encountered." Huh, that made a lot of sense. We swam in silence for a time, getting closer and closer to Nora, who from what I could tell was swimming. As she came into view however, only monumental self-control kept me from dropping underwater in shock.

"... When were you going to mention Nora swims _in the nude?!_" I was so glad that my lower body was underwater... And that the water was also fairly cold. Nora is _stacked_. Ren merely chuckled.

"I do as well normally, but I didn't have time to strip before the women you angered got to me. Neither of us are overly concerned with modesty around one another or our friends, few as they are." A pause. "You're not seriously complaining are you?"

"I would have appreciated a _little _warning, thanks." I grumbled half-heartedly. _Yang, Blake, Neo, Melanie, Miltia, Nora... 6 of the 9 hot women in my life I've seen nude. 4 of them have tried to kill me over it. ... Eh, my life is still awesome._ Nora suddenly popping up in front of me pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Hi Orion! Good to see you again! Not so good to see people chasing you but that's why I sent them away! Why were they chasing you? Did you do something bad?" I remained silent for a moment, steadfastly keeping my eyes above her neck. Ren was chuckling lowly behind her, as he could see why I was averting my eyes.

"... Define bad." Nora paused for a moment, contemplating my retaliatory question. She suddenly burst out laughing, before just as suddenly wrapping her arms around me.

"Ha! Awesome outlook! You're coming with me and Ren on our next adventure." Trying very hard to avoid focusing on Nora's... _well-endowed,_ figure pressing against me, I addressed her future partner.

"A. Do I get a choice. B. When might this happen?" Ren shrugged apathetically.

"No, and no idea. Depends on her whims. Probably not today." Nora _finally _released me (which gave me a mixed feeling. Curse my gender _and_ hormones. Bless being surrounded by beautiful women) and bounced up and down in the water in front of me, her eyes alight with curiosity.

"So what you gonna do now Orion? Wasn't the angry blond your roommate?" I mentally slapped myself to focus on her words, not her actions, and then realized what she was getting at.

"... Well I'm not going home for a while. Crap. Can't stay at Junior's, Melanie would knife me in my sleep. I just threw Adam to the figurative wolves and he lives with the brunette, so that's a no go." _I owe him some _damn _good liquor for that._ Ren spoke up, bemused at my rambling.

"Rough week?" I glanced at him.

"Par for the course with my luck, actually. I live an odd life." I went back to my original thoughts. "Can't stay with you guys I have work tomorrow... I don't even _know_ where Tukson lives, plus Blake could easily track me down there..." I mentally went over the list again, then sighed. "Fuuuck... This might end badly. Or awesomely. It depends really." Nora tilted her head curiously.

"On what?"

"On whether or not the person I'm thinking about is in a good mood... And point of view on the subject, really."

The sound of humming mixed with the sound of cooking food as a short figure worked in the apartment's small kitchen, knives flashing as she cut into various vegetables to make a salad to go with her meal. Surprisingly, Neo was an adept cook, the culinary arts being one of the few "normal" things she truly enjoyed. It was also something she kept secret for the most part; as she wore an apron while doing so, it ruined the image of being a badass she had going. Bad enough she was short and had to overcome that obstacle, anyone who saw her in that apron would have their image of her forever corrupted. She frowned at her thoughts as she pulled another item from her fridge, attention only half on what she was doing.

Suddenly there was a knock at her door, one which she basically ignored; no one knew where she was staying right now except one or two people, and they would have called ahead. She had no patience for solicitors. For a moment, it seemed as if whoever had knocked had taken the hint and left until she heard a voice speak up from her door.

"Open the door, Neo, I know you're in there." Neo paused in her cutting. She knew that voice... But _he_ shouldn't know where she was, as she hadn't told him. Double checking the meat she had on her grill, she took off her apron and stashed it in a cabinet under the sink before walking over to the door and opening it. The sight she opened it too was a bit of a surprise.

She expected to see Orion (_Opal? I can never remember which he prefers..._) obviously, as she knew his voice. She was a bit curious as to the grocery bag in his hand, and was a little surprised and more than a bit curious about why his clothes and hair looked like he had jumped into a lake. They stared at each for a moment before Orion reached into his bag and took out... "I come bearing gifts?"

Neo immediately swiped the ice cream from his hand and darted to her freezer to store it before darting back to him, hand on her hip, head tilted. *Firstly, kudos on staying on my good side. Secondly, why do you look like you jumped in the lake? And finally, how did you find me?* Orion merely stared down at her until she let out a little sigh and stepped aside to let him in. While her and Orion weren't _friends_ per se, that was more so because Orion was a little bit scared of her and her capabilities. She didn't really worry about letting him into her place, for the reasoning of both she could deal with him if he tried something and he wasn't stupid enough to rat her out to the authorities.

"Because I was thrown into a lake to escape two angry hot women, and the same way I understand you when you use your cheap as hell Semblance." He paused for a moment as if realizing what he just said. "Also, my brain filter is turned off. Most likely because of the migraine I probably have due to stressing my ability to sense people. I apologize in advance." Neo shut the door behind him and locked it before walking up to stand behind him as he turned around, taking in his surroundings. "Nice place by the way. I'm surprised I'm not seeing more nude posters or various ice cream containers everywhere."

Neo sent him a scathing glare that he was completely unbothered by. *I pick up after myself and the nude pictures are in my bedroom, not my living room. Why are you here?*

"One of the angry women was my roommate, the one perfectly capable of kicking my ass _without _the rage fueled Semblance." Neo tilted her head to the side, filing away that little tidbit. *That doesn't explain why you're in my house in particular.*

"The other woman is also pissed, I sacrificed one of my guy friends as a distraction, and I can't stay at my employer's because she knows where he lives. My remaining friends live too far away from Tukson's to stay with them. And I can't stay at Junior's." Neo blinked innocently as he directed a glare at her at that last part.

*What did I do that keeps you from Junior's?* He actually growled in the back of his throat at her! Quietly, but still. _How bad is his migraine that he is willing to do? And what else would he be willing to do?_ Something to contemplate, she supposed, she was still on a bit of a dry spell...

"I'm sorry, you seem to forget sending a very explicit message to the twins detailing acts that didn't happen. One that had them venting. On me." Neo brightened. *Oh yeah! That was fun. They were curious as to how you were. I obliged.* Orion didn't stop glaring. "You lied. And sent them very detailed erotica." Neo gave him the most innocent look she could.

*Did they not read the part at the bottom of the message saying that I wished that had happened?* The ice-cream themed woman restrained a giggle as Orion's jaw dropped. "I... you... I can't even tell if you're joking or not." He mulled it over for a moment. "Fuck it." He proceeded to flop on her couch, earning himself another nasty look. "Point is, your fault, and I'm crashing here for the night." Neo crossed her arms in front of her.

*And you think I'll let you stay?* Orion held up the decidedly still full bag. "10 gallons of ice cream say yes." A moment's pause before Neo took the bag from him and stuffed it in her freezer. A day right? She's done that before. Granted, outside her house, but it was arguably safer here, in her own territory. Plus, ice cream. "So hey..." She turned her attention towards him. "While I'm a little surprised you're not jumping all over the chance to try and seduce me..." She was internally, but was more concerned with getting minor details out of the way. "Why do I smell something burning?"

A beat of silence. Two beats. Neo communicated a shriek over Semblance and dashed to her food, Orion chuckling behind her as he watched.

**AN: So, I am so very sorry. Writer's Block, moving, school kicking back up, lots of things. But here it is. Expect the next chapter to be quicker, as I have already started on it. So, a few notes and thoughts before I cover what I want to stay about the chapter.**

**Canon: I will be veering away from canon for a number of points. It essentially boils down to that I have changed so much that there won't be much point. Now, aside from Qrow, as I have my own headcanon for him, I will do my best to remain true to the character's personality (abilities... eh, case-by-case basis) and most definitely their appearance. But the world of AOT is now an AU, one I will play with at my leisure, and any of you who yell at me for abandoning canon... Well, you can go read a different story. xT-Zealot has got a good one that plays pretty faithful.**

**Other worlds: Yeah, Orion and the other characters will be ending up in other worlds, or vice versa, depending on what I think would be better for the world in question: a brief cameo from a character or two (or monster), or an actual jaunt with a few characters of RWBY into the world. Now, if you don't like that, leave, as there's only so much I can do with RWBY, and I have plans. Speaking of...**

**Future plotting: So there's a lot of things I want to get done with this story and it's future. One big thing I may as well warn you now is a collab between another author on a story of theirs to intersect with my own. I **_**very much**_ **look forward to it (you know who you are, don't spoil it!) and anyone who is a fan of myself and any author on my favorites list will hopefully look forward to it. **

**That's about all on my mind. Now, to the chapter notes:**

**The twins: So, I'll make it clear: they were originally just messing with Orion when attacking him, but when Orion landed a pretty good combo on her sister, Melanie kind of freaked. It's due to their backstory that I have for them, which is kinda dark, and a bit twisted. If they had taken Orion a bit more seriously from the start, or if Orion hadn't been bailed out by Junior and Miltia in the end from Melanie's rage, Orion **_**would**_ **have been in serious trouble. This is partially due to the fact that I'm making the twins stronger than in canon, but also because Orion is really not on their level yet. Orion is not on the level of anyone in canon as of yet in a straight up fight (this includes Jaune, but in the order of Jaune not being on his level just yet). Orion has won a number of fights so far, but that's either because of dirty tricks or someone bailing him out. The **_**only**_ **reason he has not been seriously injured is his massive Aura reserves.**

**Yang: Yang is a bit of a troubled young woman. We knew this due to the episode in which she revealed why she and Ruby have different last names, and I expanded on this. So yeah, she kind of latched onto Orion a little bit. Beyond that is debatable at the moment, but she does have protective instincts in regards to him. One she wishes to act on more often, but can't. Why she got pissed off when Orion mentioned the incident with Blake? Eh, who knows.**

**Ren &amp; Nora: The most chill people in RWBY, in my opinion. Nora for being unchangeable regardless of circumstances, and Ren for being completely chill. They see no reason to not bail out Orion from the angry women. And yes, Ren and Nora swim in the nude: Ren because he doesn't care, and Nora because I don't see her caring about societal quirks such as nudity or personal space. **

**Speaking of them...**

"Hey Renny, we did good today right?" The teen turned his attention to his nude friend who was lying on the grass, air drying. Orion had left them some time ago, and after a little bit longer in the water they had both gotten out. Ren smiled softly down at her, not that she could see as she was lying facedown.

"Yes. Even leveled a skill a few times." Nora hummed at that. "I'm glad we picked his side over the others."

"I will admit, I was a bit tempted, but we've known Orion for a bit now. Oh hey, did you ask him about that weird title he has?" Ren remained quiet, mulling the question over as his eyes remained focused on the words floating above her head. The ones identical to his own.

**Nora Valkyrie**

**The GamerF**

**Level 15**

"Renny?" Ren shook his head.

"No Nora, I did not." Nora rolled over in the grass so she could more easily look at him, her expression serious.

"We're going to have to at some point, you know. Especially with what Observing him told us." Ren leaned back in the grass, recalling the memory.

**"Orion"**

**Outsider**

**Level**

_Orion is the laid-back sole employee of Tukson's Book Trade. With luck ranging so wildly across the spectrum from good to bad that it is unquantifiable and numerous interactions with individuals on either side of the law, he is an enigma in Vale. Who is he? From where did he come from? And what are his intentions in Vale?_

"I know Nora. And we will. We just have to wait for the opportune time to do so. I'd rather not make him hostile towards us." Nora considered what her friend said, then shrugged.

"Fiiine. Waiting is so boring! I much prefer going out on adventures!" Ren merely chuckled at her pout. After a moment her expression became one of mischief. "Although, I gotta say, watching him try so hard to not stare at me? _That _was funny. Oh hey, did you check the rewards to the quest?" Ren blinked, before tapping something only the two of them could see.

**Feminine Fury**

**Rescue Orion from those he has angered.**

**Or**

**Help Blake and Yang exact vengeance upon the one who incurred their wrath.**

**Reward: Dependent on objective completed.**

**Objective completed! Rescue Orion from those he has angered.**

**Reward: Increased closeness with Orion! +2 STR! 1500 lien! 5000 EXP!**

"Huh. That's useful." Nora peered over his shoulder, having gotten up while he was reading to do so.

"Huh, I got a wisdom boost. You'd think it'd be the other way around with our focuses." Ren pondered for a moment while closing out the window.

"It's probably because of our actions. I'm the one who actually threw him, and you're the one who lied to cover him. If we had done different things, we would have improved differently." Nora bobbed her head in agreement.

"You think if we help him out enough he might open up a bit?" Ren hummed non-committedly as lay back on the grass, Nora laying down beside him.

"Maybe. At the very least he might help us pick up books. Dust knows we need more." Nora pouted.

"I didn't mean to do it! They just were consumed, and... I can't get them back." Ren sighed.

"I know Nora. I did the same." They lay there in quiet for a time before Nora spoke up again.

"You think he'd be willing to go on an adventure with us?"

"Probably."

**Bwahahahaha! That wasn't an omake either, that was an actual part of this chapter. Team Sloth are Gamers in AOT! Why? Plot reasons, and because I felt like it. A fellow author pointed out that Ren's Aura shielding he did during initiation was remarkably similar to Mana Barrier... So, hijacking! Plus, I haven't seen a Ren or Nora Gamer yet anyway.**

**That about wraps it up. Read! Review! Tread lightly around combat trained females!**


	24. Chapter 24

**RRC: Let's see here... In order I hope.**

**Reaper: Eh, Miltia was more playful about it. Yang and Blake would have just hit him... a lot. Melanie was the only one who would have done something truly serious.**

**Tri2: Glad you like it. Mechashift armor? Interesting... Well, theoretically, it's possible. Orion's gauntlets and greaves are traditionally pieces of armor, just repurposed for offensive uses. A full suit of armor would be a bit cumbersome though, at least for most people, as there is more focus on **_**dodging **_**than in most combat styles with armor. However, great idea, we may see that in the works...**

**HikariNoTenshi-San: Both of them are. Nora is the female Gamer, Ren the male. And this entire story is partially a tribute to Monty Oum for his creation of RWBY. And Ren has been around Nora for so long that he is unbothered over such things. Hehe, Yang was a touch predictable I guess. It's still up in the air, as Orion's feelings are unclear. Actually, aside from Yang having a great deal of affection for him, **_**her own**_** feelings on the matter are unclear. We shall have to see for the other women, no?**

**GeassDragon: Glad you liked.**

**Squadpunk: Yes, the many possibilities are endless... And who knows? Actually a few know, but very few, and I have forbidden them from telling. **

**Raidentensho: The only part I will confirm or deny is Orion will be training Jaune to a certain degree before 'canon' starts.**

**Vix: Eeh... That'll be fixed by the time you read this. Yes, neko-nip cookies. The great equalizer between man and catwoman. Yes, elements of The Gamer shall be fun to play with. Yang could be either or, I decided to go with the latter. She is still the former, mind, but it isn't emphasised as much in this story. Yet. Karma, the other great equalizer. And I have redefined Orion's luck to what Ren/Nora's Observe had stated: it is so across the board of good and bad that it cannot be quantified, even by the their own ability. Orion figures that the "beautiful women" part makes up for it though. **

**FreezingReality: Glad you enjoy! Actually the other world's thing isn't Orion's fault. It can be tied to his presence a certain degree, but it is **_**not**_** his fault. Witness the changing world of Remnant!**

**Posidon: Mwahahaha, no one expects the Gaming Inquisition!**

**tdychko: Did you just type in random letters? Glad you like the story! Hope you enjoy this chapter.**

**Observer: That wasn't erotica, that was a daydream of Neo's descriptive enough to be erotica. Glad you enjoyed!**

**Drmethilon: *gives cookie* Uhm, the twins are stronger because I can justify it and I want to. Ren and Nora had their Semblances turned into that of The Gamer. Ozpin shall not be a Planeswalker, he's just Ozpin. And Qrow is terrifying, he doesn't need to be a Death Scythe. Anyway, no. Yeah, Orion gets to deal with all of that, but whether it's good or bad remains to be determined. The harem thing... Yeah kind of? Except Orion will **_**not**_** have a harem. And no relationship between him and Ruby beyond brother-sister. The rest are possible, but the only pairing beyond Orionx one person will be OrionxMalachites, which would be a polyamorous relationship. **

**edus: Indeed. We shall begin…**

**Guest with odd view of life: .. please don't? That would be multiple levels of awkward I don't feel like dealing with…**

**Smuglehorn: *gives cookie* Ah Yeah, Shadows of a Wolf. Good times. reaper is still a little pissy at me if I blatantly throw sexual humor in his face… meh, it's funny. Glad you enjoy! And no, I've decided, but I ain't telling. And I've plotted the twins life. It be… very dark. And not pretty.**

**Derox-1223: *gives cookie* I was bouncing the idea off of a writer of a Gamer fic, and I was just like "I can fit this in my story. This is happening." To quote Nora at the end there, anyway. I mention next chapter in the AN who exactly I bounced the idea off of.**

**Umbrador: Glad you like! Yeah, while I'm perfectly capable of writing erotica… it this context, it would either be in first person POV or about another variation of me. Which is… squicky. No.**

**Potato man: *gives cookie* It might. All depends on my whims… And I've never played Dishonored. Pretty sure I've mentioned a few times that Orion's Semblance is going to be related to a mainstream anime in a manner. Cool idea though, you could totally do a Dishonored-RWBY fic.**

**SidJ: *gives cookie* Please, sanity is for the weak. Also, as he is right now, Orion is stronger than scraggly blond. Thing is? Orion REFUSES to be a Hunter. As in I'm threatened with terrible migraines for the idea. So, while Orion is capable of doing so… he doesn't want to. And he won't.**

**Badgedbadger: *gives cookie* Yeah, I hate to say it, but that was even a double update chapter. Soo… I'm glad you like the story though! And the trust with sexuality thing… In my head it makes sense. Feel free to PM me so I can bounce the idea back and forth with you so I can come up with a clearer explanation so we don't have someone repeating what you did, if you'd like.**

**AnerianGod: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy. Also, while I'm flattered for the offer, please read the Author's Note next chapter.**

**Storylover: I have many things, young one. Feel free to browse, just be careful of the demon's head. I haven't quite yet killed that stupid thing so it has a nasty habit of biting customers when they poke it…**

**ArtfulDemon: *gives cookie* There are pitfalls? I just do what another author does and apply common sense… and also point at the fact that you're not going to be a damn world-beater out of the gate, which means you're not made of awesome and you're going to get your ass kicked. Yeah, I've thought about that stuff for the pairings thingies. Lots of things to play with in the future, no? As for the multicrossover fics… I will admit, I've seen them gone bad too. But I've seen a couple good ones. My favorite that has gone right is Blindluck92's "Supernovas of Mass Effect". Such a great work in my opinion, and he works really hard to keep everything somewhat balanced. So, with that example in mind, I believe it **_**is**_** possible for a multicrossover to work! Oh, and another example, which will be a closer example to what I'm doing, would be Admiral-Tigerclaw's "Sleeping with the Girls". I need to go reread that….**

**Bob-870mt: *gives cookie* So… you just reviewed every chapter I wrote. While awesome, I'm just going to blanket cover your comments with "glad you enjoy".**

**Fenrir: *gives cookie* Thanks. I like people pointing out my problems. And I actually do sometimes talk like that in real life… And thank you for the comment on Melanie. I kind of took that and ran with it to help me write some of next chapter. Kudos to you for the advice, really, I hope these two chapters are a bit better…**

**Oyshik: *gives cookie* People be people. And I have planned for that already, some people might even guess it.**

**alucard-masters: Someone needs to write such a thing. This needs to happen. Also, *gives cookie***

**AnerianJames: Are you the same person? Regardless, while flattered, read Author's Note next chapter. *gives cookie* I need to make more of these… Also, I'm not a great writer. I'm actually kind of crap, and really just improving as I go. HARDCORE improv, man.**

**S.R.457: AND FOR YOUR LOVE, YOU SHALL RECEIVE A COOKIE. *gives cookie***

**Conchamp: *gives cookie* I have been threatened, on pain of PAIN, to not put Orion in Beacon. I **_**despise **_**pain, so guess what? Orion isn't going to attend Beacon. Period.**

**correnhimself: *gives cookie* *nods thoughtfully* I try to be somewhat realistic… though that may change for the sake of getting past writer's block and/or comic relief. And yeah, racism irritates me. This spread to Orion, who is a bit more violent than me, and he expresses his irritation. Very loudly.**

**HOLY SHIT, THERE WAS A LOT OF REVIEWS.**

***cough* Continuing on. The next chapter! We left off with Orion crashing at Neo's I believe.**

**The Oddities of Daily Life**

I groaned as I leaned back in my chair at work, legs (with Opug expanded) resting on the counter with a magazine over my face. After crashing Neo's apartment, I had spent the rest of my night chatting with her and dealing with her seducing me.

**Flashback**

_*Oh come on, what's the worst that can happen?*_

_"Neo, I was attacked by the twins when you _implied _we slept together. The other two angry females were pissed off because I had seen one of them naked. _What_ in the name of Dust do you think would happen if I actually slept with you?"_

_*What's life without a little risk?*_

_"There is a difference between a _little risk_ and blatantly pissing off the people who can kick my ass _normally_. Not even counting I don't even want to know your kinks."_

_*I swear I only bite a little.*_

_"No Neo. I like breathing. And not being hospitalized. And not wasting Aura healing hickeys."_

_*I thought your brain filter wasn't working?*_

_"Difference between lowered inhibitions and having a self-preservation instinct."_

_*Pish, the thought of epic sex should be overriding the self-preservation at least a little. Besides, who would tell?*_

_"Neo, I swear to God, I _will _stab you."_

_*Ooh, promise?*_

_"GO AWAY NEO."_

_*You're no fun...*_

**End Flashback**

Waking up in the morning to a nude Neo groping me rather intimately was a mixed blessing. Ended up physically throwing her out the window so I could change clothes (I could guess why she had men's clothing at her place, but at least they fit) and then proceeded to throw _myself_ out of the window when I heard her front door open. Not dealing with that today. Hell no.

Tukson didn't ask any questions when I got to work early. Though that might have been because of the evil eye I gave him when he opened his mouth. After a bit, he had left the store to me, claiming that he had errands to run. Wonder how long until he figures out I know he's White Fang? Thankfully, it was a slow day, letting me just rest and recover from the craziness of my life. _Whoever the hell said the Chinese proverb "May you live in interesting times" wasn't a curse is going to get kicked in the groin. Repeatedly._

My rest was disturbed by someone of _power_ wandering to the shop. _Who the hell?_ Not bothering to get up, I reached out. Someone definitely on par with Glynda and Ozpin, so that's a pretty narrow list, and something noticeable, heat or-

_There is no way my luck is that bad._

* * *

A beautiful woman walked casually down the street, paying little attention to the looks men and women alike sent her way. She didn't blame them: black hair, eyes that look like the reflection of a fire, a stunning strapless red dress that emphasized her sensual figure, and high heels made of black glass that clicked quietly against the ground as she walked would easily draw attention. She didn't mind; being noticeable was useful for now, as it meant more would pay attention to her appearance then her actions.

Finally she reached her destination, a quaint little bookshop run by what her sources told her was a resourceful Faunus in the employ of the White Fang. Walking inside, however, she frowned a touch, as there was no sign of the man described to her, the sole occupant of the store being a young man, human, sleeping behind the counter. Her frown became a little more pronounced as she noticed his posture; face covered completely by a book, legs atop the counter, chair leaning back with only two legs on the floor. _How indolent. It seems my Intel on the man's resourcefulness wasn't entirely spot-wait._

Her frown faded into a neutral expression as she examined him more closely, paying attention to minor details. While his legs were on the counter, what was noticeable now were the greaves he wore, greaves similar to another young man of her acquaintance. His breathing was even, a normal indication of a sleeping target, but it seemed... unnatural, in a way, forced. Around his forearms, which she could barely see, were two more metal objects, indicative of weaponry that was uncommon for anyone not a Huntsman or trainee. _This man is not indolent; simply very good at acting like it._ She blinked out of her thoughts as the subject of her attention spoke up.

"While we don't mind people browsing, lady, we do expect you to buy something if you come into the shop." Aside from speaking, the young man made no other movement, but she could feel him focusing on her underneath the magazine. She let a (false) apologetic smile form on her face as she inclined her head towards the young man.

"My apologies. I was simply taking in the wonderful collection of books you have. Are you the owner of the store?" No point in letting on that she knew more than she should. The young man in front of her, while at first glance didn't seem much, was now someone she paid attention to, his ease betraying a readiness for... something. He raised a hand and flippantly waved it.

"Nah, just a lowly worker. Was there a book in particular you were looking for Miss...?" The woman's smile quirked a bit as he still had yet to even look at her. A bit lazy it seemed like.

"Fall. I am... a bit of a scholar, as it happens, and was looking into reports on Mount Glenn. Some colleagues recommended here for possible sources of information I could use." That spurred him to move, reaching up with a hand to remove the magazine from his face, allowing her to study him a bit more intently. Brown green eyes alight with curiosity and alertness stared back at her, but there was no desire in his gaze, merely analysis.

"Better than most 'scholars' we have come through here. Polite as well. Let's see what we have." Hands shot out to grip the counter as he kicked back, leaning far back in the chair and remaining off the floor only due to his braced arms. Another movement and he sat properly in front of her and the computer. "Mount Glenn in general, or a specific part of it?"

"My focus is currently on how they got supplies from Vale, as an overland route as far as I know would be fraught with Grimm."

The employee's hands stilled over the keyboard for a moment. "Supply transport? I can tell you that one, though I'll also recommend a book you can cite. While some supplies were transported via airship, the vast majority were sent through an underground subway system between Mount Glenn and here. Government sealed them up after the Grimm overran the place, but civil engineering probably still has old schematics you could reference. As for the book..." Fingers blurred across the terminal, the young man sifting through data. The woman who named herself Fall was impressed: while a bit of study would be plenty to find out about the tunnels, not many thought of the plans for the tunnels still existing, outside of civil servants who understood how much bureaucracy loved paperwork. "Here we are, seems we have it in stock too. "Progressional Foundations", by John Shepard." At her amused look he shrugged. "I didn't write it. Let's see..."

He stood, pushing the chair back slightly, and walked around the counter, allowing her to take him in fully. Average height, even build, but a... readiness, not normally seen in civilians. Wandering to one of the shelves, his eyes flicked across the books with practiced ease before settling on one he reached out and pulled from the shelf. Skimming the title and the back, he nodded to himself before coming back to the counter where she had patiently waited and, handing her the book, he returned to his seat behind the counter.

"There we are, now as to the price..." A few taps on the keys. "250 lien, Ms. Fall. Unless there was something else?" A moment's pause from the woman as a small tidbit of information made itself known from her memory.

"Actually, now that I'm think about it, there was a specific book I wanted to grab as well. The 'Third Crusade'?" She took a startled step backward as the young man slammed his head into the desk with an exasperated groan.

"I keep telling him to stock that book, collectors always want a copy, but does he listen? Noo..." He tiredly raised his head to stare at her. "My apologies Ms. Fall, that is one of the few books we don't keep in stock. I can special order it for you if you'd like? You'd have to give me your name and scroll number." She pondered for a moment, then decided that it would be best to leave a line of contact.

"If you would. My full name is Cinder Fall. My scroll number is..." Cinder rattled off a number that the young man jotted down next to her name. Giving himself a self-satisfied nod, he placed the paper off to the side.

"I'll pass it along to him whenever he gets back. He has a bad habit of never checking the computer when I tell him someone needs something... If that'll be everything?" Cinder nodded and passed him the amount necessary. He took it and slipped it into a register, popping off the receipt and writing something on the back of it before passing it to her. The dress-wearing woman paid little mind to it, placing it right in front of the title page.

"Well then, have a pleasant day Ms. Fall. I hope we'll see you again if there's any other books you need." Cinder granted the young man a small smile.

"It was a pleasure, mister..." She let her sentence trail off, realizing. "My apologies, I never allowed you to introduce yourself." He shrugged.

"It's not a problem. My name is Opal." Cinder's smile morphed into a bemused smirk at his name.

"Isn't Opal a name meant for women?" He shrugged.

"My parents weren't the most creative people in the world, and it was the type of gem set in their wedding rings." She could understand that. Cinder herself associated with a girl named Emerald, though at least her name made sense when taking in her appearance.

"Ah. Well thank you for your wonderful service Mr. Opal, I hope to see you again." An inclination of her head, and she spun on her heels, clicking out of the shop.

* * *

I waited until I was sure the woman was a good distance away, then collapsed into my chair.

"Cinder Fall. Really? Apparently my luck _is_ that bad... If I end up meeting Torchwick within the next week, I'm going to punch him in the face." Just because. My week has been bad enough, meeting the criminal with a grenade launcher for a cane would just make it worse.

Still... She wasn't that obvious. To me, she was, but I have foreknowledge I shouldn't. Anyone else, she would have been just a scholar, a highly attractive one, researching an important topic of Remnant's history. I unfortunately have my own image of a highly knowledgeable employee to maintain, hence pointing her at a possible way to access the layout of Glenn's tunnel network. But then she probably would have pieced that together herself anyway, I just made it easier. Hopefully, I won't ever see her again.

After a moment I snorted. _Yeah, I ain't that lucky. Man this just is not my week..._

* * *

"Damn, you got messed up. I figured they were just pissed off at me." I spoke this to the man holding the sword to my neck, Adam being highly unamused.

"That bullshit about Feminine Fury™ being an unguided weapon? Turned out to be true. Oh so very painfully true." _Oh._

"See, I would apologize... But that would imply I wouldn't do the exact same thing if it came down to it." Highly unamused shifted into highly irritated.

"Are you really going to say that while I have you at sword point?" I pondered a moment, leaning back in my chair as I did so.

"Hmm... Yep." I placed my feet on the counter, hands behind my head, the picture of relaxed. "Sorry bro, but in that situation? I'm saving my ass before anyone else's." Adam let out a bestial growl as he adjusted his grip on his sword.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't cut you until you look like a training dummy?" I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Aside from pointing out that your memory sucks when it comes to my weapons? Free drinks at the Den." Adam seemed to consider that a moment.

"I'm still really tempted to cut you. Congrats, you did that without being racist." I shrugged.

"Tell you what. You put the sword up, and I point the shotguns at the ground." Pause. Adam looked down at my _armor covered _feet. "This is really sad. You're like the third person I've done this to, you don't even have the excuse of not knowing what weapons I have."

"Is it even legal for you to have those out?" He asked slowly as he moved to re-sheathe his blade.

"Technically yes? You wouldn't attack me here anyway." I placed my feet back on the ground after Adam removed his hand from the sword hilt.

"Bull. I would attack you and not feel bad about it if you didn't bribe me with drinks."

"I said here. For one, your organization's _supplier _owns this place and would blame it on you." Adam scowled as he remembered that.

"I feel like there's a second reason."

"Yeah, it's called you have a bibliophile for an adopted sister who would uncork an even worse asswhooping on you if you damaged the books." At that Adam paled and looked around warily.

"I didn't even think of that, fuck." He turned his gaze on me. "You're going to blackmail me over the fact I was about to fight you in a bookstore aren't you?"

"Meh, don't attack me and we'll call it even. So any reason for being here aside from threatening me with bodily harm?" Adam slouched in place.

"Nope that's pretty much it. Not like I have much to do today, and I need to stay away from Blake before the images run rampant." He went back to glaring at me. "Once again. I hate you." I flippantly waved a hand.

"Yeah yeah, mental trauma, future pain, I get it. I feel like I'm the only guy friend you have..." Adam shrugged, leaning against a bookcase.

"You are. Not really the friend making type of person. I don't even know how the hell we're friends, you're a _human._ An annoying one at that." I raised a finger into the air, lifting others as I made points.

"I punch racists in the face. I work for your group's supplier. I give you alcohol. I keep you from being bored. And Blake holds some level of affection towards me when she's not tearing my head off, so you're stuck by association." Adam gave me the blankest look he could muster.

"Did you just come up with that bullshit or were you saving up for it?"

"A little of Column A, a little of Column B. Knowing how to talk down the people I associate with is a necessary survival skill in my life."

Adam chuckled dryly. "Your life is fucking insane."

"Yes, but in the past month and a half, I've seen 6 beautiful women nude or near nude, 4 of which hold some level of attraction to me, one whom is actively attempting to seduce me. I like to think that balances out most of the insane crap in my life."

"... _Dust_ I hate you. You make it so hard to _not _hate you. Why do I hang out with you?"

"Copious amounts of free alcohol, semi-decent conversation, and I'm apparently the only friend you have with a Y chromosome?" Adam considered that.

"Huh. My life is depressing."

"Guess we're going drinking when I get off. God I hope Melanie isn't there, I am _not_ fighting for my life again."

* * *

"You are so damn lucky." This Was Tony's greeting as I walked up to the entrance of the bar, Adam in tow.

"Is that a sign Melanie isn't here? Please say yes." He rolled his eyes behind his glasses.

"Says the man who brought backup. You use that thing, we wreck you, by the way." Adam raised an eyebrow.

"He walks in with weapons all the time." Tony gave an apathetic shrug.

"The boss likes him, and his roommates terrify the shit out of us." The bouncer returned his attention to me. "But yes. Both twins are out of town."

"I'm thankful for that, it's been a long few days, and I need a drink. VIP room occupied?" Tony pondered a moment, then spoke quietly into his scroll, shaking his head after a moment. "Awesome. That's where I'll be. Come on Adam." With that we walked inside, the familiar sounds of Kuma's music washing over us.

As much as I enjoyed his music, it was rather loud, which was... Not the greatest thing for Adam's Faunus senses, so I moved with a purpose, heading straight for the VIP room. I gave the two guards a friendly nod as one of them opened the door, Adam and I stepping through quickly as it was shut behind us. I immediately headed over to the mini-bar Junior kept stocked while Adam took an appreciative look over the room, the music dulled by the walls surrounding us.

"You know, I find myself hating you less than normal at the moment. Why do you have access to here?" I chuckled dryly as I browsed the bottles Junior had in stock.

"On good terms with a grand majority of the Crew, helped Junior piece together a name for this place, done a few odd jobs, decent conversationalist..."

"Knows better than to experiment with drinks." A dry tone rumbled from the door as it was opened and closed, temporarily allowing the music in. I turned and cheerfully greeted the big man as Adam sat on one of the couches.

"Junior! Great, now I don't have to drag out the drink book!" Junior chuckled, waving me to the "customer" side of the mini-bar. Adam meanwhile grew curious.

"Drink book?" I shrugged without looking at him, holding up my scroll.

"I work at a bookstore and I hang out here a lot. I've picked up a few recipes I like or have been curious about and stored them on here. So long as I don't dip into Junior's rare stock it's cool." I directed a glare at the big man's back. "Mil _has_ taught me a few drinks you know."

"That doesn't mean you know what you're doing. Why does Bull-boy look like he needs a drink more than he wants one?" Adam growled lowly in his throat, but didn't bother getting up.

"Walking in on someone I see as a sister masturbating." Junior paused and cast a glance at the red-haired man.

"Weren't you already here for that?" Adam made some sort of movement, more than likely a gesture at me.

"This asshat reminded me." Junior's eyes turned to me and I chuckled.

"He may be suppressing the memory, I sure as hell am not." Junior considered that before pulling out a bottle and tossing it to the faunus.

"Good liquor is at least a decent distraction." Adam made a noise of approval and the distinct sound of a bottle opening rang out through the room. Junior turned his attention to me and I merely waved a hand.

"Surprise me." The big man turned back to his stock of drinks while Adam imbibed his own in the background. "So, where'd you send the girls?"

Junior reached out and grabbed a specific bottle and a pair of glasses before turning back to me. "Mistral. I figured you'd be happier than if they were in Vacuo." I nodded my agreement. Junior poured a fair amount of alcohol into each glass and slid me one of them. I took a sip and nodded my approval. _Junior knows what he's doing_. Before Junior could drink from his own his scroll beeped. Sighing, he pulled it from his pocket. "If it's not one thing it's another... What?"

A voice spoke on the other end. Though incoherent to me, judging by Adam's annoyed grumble and Junior's darkening expression, it wasn't anything good. "What's up?" I asked the big man as he put his scroll away, anger coming from in waves.

"Some jackass local group found out the twins were out of town in Mistral, and decided that now would be an excellent time to start shit. I'm going to have an armed group of thugs on my doorstep in half an hour. My customers will be far from amused if I kick them out." I hummed under my breath, mind racing, before spinning in my chair and pointing at Adam.

"Yo, Adam-"

"Unless you think you have a really good argument as to why I should quit drinking this and involve myself in a fight I have no stake in, piss off." Adam's tone was flat and he was obviously in no mood.

"Misplaced aggression is cathartic? And you can keep the drink." Adam considered it for a moment.

"... Actually smacking someone around would be very relieving, and since I can't attack you they'll do." I spun back to Junior.

"Between the three of us this won't take long and we won't even have to bother the people enjoying themselves tonight." Junior nodded thoughtfully.

"Yes... they're not competent, really, just annoying, arrogant, and really stupid." I clapped my hands.

"See, there you go! Oh hey, you got any 150 or so proof back here?"

* * *

"So... I expected something else, I'll admit." I spoke quite calmly to Junior as I watched a mass of men begin to assemble in the parking lot. The man himself stood at the top of the steps to his club, Adam standing a step below, blade in one hand, rifle in the other. I sat another step low, casually tossing a bottle up and down in my hand. "Like... For them to not be intelligent at all. Or look like cavemen or something."

Junior's eyes didn't waver from the growing rabble, leaning on his weapon in its bat form. "I don't want to know why exactly you would have an idea like that, but it sounds no less insane than the rest of your plan." I rolled my eyes, not that he could see me.

"I didn't hear you come up with a better one. Relax, steps one and two just make things easier, if they don't work step three still will. Besides, none of these guys.. Ok, _he _looks capable." I reluctantly admitted as a man bigger than _Junior _appeared out of an alley, massive greataxe hefted in one hand. Adam snorted from his position, unimpressed.

"I've seen bigger. Hell, we _fought _bigger not even a week ago." I pondered that for a moment.

"Good point." Finally the rabble seemed to organize itself with the big man in the middle of it. Most of them held various melee weaponry, actual weaponry such as swords and axes, and there were a few firearm wielders as well scattered in the mass. "Credit where it's due, they're better armed than the last gang I fought." I _felt_ Adam's stare boring into me.

"When the hell did you ever fight another gang?" I shrugged, surging from my sitting position to fully standing on my chosen step.

"Tell ya later." I raised my voice to speak out to the mass gathered in front of me. The hostile probably violent mass. "Gentlemen!" Pause. I peered a little closer at the group. "And ladies. You seem ill-dressed for our fine establishment tonight! And far too many weapons as well! I'm afraid I must ask you to surrender your various armaments before I can allow you in to join the festivities." I was being given the weirdest looks from everyone around me. I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly. "Seriously? No response? You bastard are a waste of a good speech... Fuck it. You! Chumpy! Catch!" I tossed the bottle in hand towards the crowd and one man, reflexively, caught it and held it above his head, staring dumbly at it.

A random voice in the crowd, I figured male from the tone, called out, "And what is that supposed to be? A peace offering?" I shook my head.

"Merely step one in a four step process. Adam? Step two please." The bull faunus brought Blush up and fired once, striking the bottle held aloft.

Fun fact. While alcohol is known to be flammable, it only needs to be 80 proof, or 40% alcohol content to catch alight. The bottle Adam just shot was _190 proof_. That, along with the vial of red dust I had poured into it earlier and the standard red dust ammo used by most guns led to a very bright and very hot explosion, also lots of fire. Very much shock and awe as a fireball erupted in the middle of the group, along with standards screams of fear, pain and agony.

I nodded to myself watching the chaos as the group dissolved trying to deal with being on fire and a grand blow being struck. "Junior? Step three."

With a soft grunt the big man brought his bat up, shifting it to the bazooka mode and aiming down at the group below. Taking only a moment to aim at the rough middle of the mass he fired once, twice and enveloped them in explosives. More screams of pain as I cast a look at the men beside me.

"Told ya this wouldn't take long. Step 4 is the longest, and that's just mop up." Adam stared at the carnage below, sheathing Wilt in preparation for his Iai style of fighting.

"You do know the only reason they're not dead is because of their Aura right?" I shrugged, unconcerned.

"That just means less corpses and blood to clean up. Besides, the fact they have Aura is why we can get away with this without being called out for mass murder." Halfway through my statement Adam's stare had drifted to me, now slightly incredulous.

".. And Blake got away with threatening you?!" I scowled, lifting a finger.

"One, she caught me off guard with a good ambush. Two, sexy catgirl straddling me? Not complaining." Adam's face became blank, and _wow_ that's a lot of repressed anger he has bottled up there.

"You make it so hard to not want to maim you..." I shrugged, before pointing at the general mass that was slowly starting to stop panicking to nonverbally make a point. "Fair enough. Oi scumbags! Hold still and this won't hurt as much!" After roaring that out he jumped from his position into the mass, and soon became a blur of violence. Junior stared at me so I directed my attention to him.

"What?" He slowly blinked a few times.

"Any particular reason you're actually afraid of the twins instead of faking it?" I snorted.

"Only two people I'm scared of are Qrow and Neo. Anyone else is an act. I _am_ wary of them, but that's mainly because they can beat my ass in a straight up fight." I shrugged. "I'm not stupid. Now then… KUMA! GIVE ME THE BEATS!" This was bellowed back to the DJ in question, as I was assured by Junior that he could hear. Indeed, only a few seconds passed before the track switched up.

**-Cue "Killin It" by Krewella-**

I nodded my head to the tune for a few seconds. "Kuma's got a good ear." I spun back to the fight and leaped from my position into the fray, my weapons enveloping my hands and feet while I was in the air. I snapped out a punch as I came down, catching one man with a gauntlet covered fist. As he stumbled, I followed up with a shot to his solar plexus before grabbing his head as he doubled over and smashing a recoil enhanced knee into his skull. He dropped limply to the ground when I released him.

Everyone fights differently. Yang prefers a straightforward approach, barraging opponents until they go down. Nora, while similar in the idea of aggression, prefers to strike only a few heavy blows after a foe is off balance. My current battle partner, Adam, used Iai strikes to cut down his foes, strikes faster and stronger than most men can bring to bear. My preference? Grapples and throws, getting in closer than most are comfortable and striking in extreme close quarters.

I sidestepped a clumsy blow from a sword, grasping my opponent at the arm and neck before pivoting and throwing him at the nearest other man, sending them both crashing to the ground in a heap. Spinning, I caught another blow on my right gauntlet, deflecting it off to the side before stepping forward and grasping his head in a single hand. With a thought I triggered the shotguns in my greaves and launched myself forward, dragging my hapless foe with me before we crashed into another. I released him and flew over the tumble of bodies, grasping another foe by his shoulders and slamming both knees into the back of his skull, dropping him like a stone. I landed on the ground as he collapsed, sparing a moment to watch Adam cut down three men rapidly in the space of a few seconds.

_White Fang fight humans more than Grimm, meaning he's probably going to be better against against this type of foe than the crap we fought in the forest._ A spike in hostility behind me had me rolling forward into a handstand, dodging underneath the swing of an axe. Shifting, I brought my shotguns to bear and fired both of them at once, sending the man flying back as my own recoil flipped me back into a crouch, warily eyeing around me. Spotting another opponent, I straightened and charged forward, catching him in a lariat before he could bring his rifle to bear. Stopping myself as I felt my arm impact with his neck, I continued the motion of my upper body and grabbed him in a hold around his neck. Spinning, I let out a cry as I dragged him along before releasing him in the direction of Adam, who cut him once in the air and sent him soaring in the opposite direction. After a moment the two of us were back to back, facing a circle of enemies wielding blades. I rolled my neck from one side to the other. "Having fun yet?" A snort from behind me.

"I feel a bit better if that counts. Go low." Heeding his words I dropped into a crouch as he spun and unleashed a swing of his blade catching multiple foes at once as they advanced to quickly towards us. I straightened rapidly and placed a hand in his shoulder as he sheathed his blade once more.

"Don't move." I triggered my greaves and using him as a focal point swung myself up, bringing my shotguns to bear on two men coming drop behind Adam. More specifically, their heads. "Goodnight!" I fired, flipping backwards as the two men were sent flying. I stumbled as I hit the ground, adjusting myself. _How in the hell Yang _punches_ with these things I will never know_. A yell from nearby had Adam and I turning our attention to Junior's position, where he calmly batted away a thug that had gotten too close. A quarter of the crew had joined him, rifles brought to bear as they unleashed suppressing fire on the thugs around us. I let out a low whistle before an angry shout, much closer and right behind the two of us, had us rapidly dodging the massive swing of the axe as it came down, cutting into the pavement and leaving a massive mark. I flipped the behemoth of a man off as I adjusted my stance. "Hey, watch it! I'm the only allowed to commit massive property damage, and that's because I don't pay taxes!" Adam snorted a few feet away, stance low as we watched the giant bring his axe to rest on his shoulder.

"No one in the immediate area pays taxes Opal, we're criminals, remember?" I flipped off Adam for his comment.

"Fuck you man, I am a law abiding resident of Vale! Despite not being a citizen…" The man in front of us scowled at our banter.

"Are you dumbasses going to take this seriously?!" I directed my attention back to the giant, vaguely aware of someone familiar registering on my senses.

"Well no. For one, Jumbo, you're way too slow for us to take seriously. Two, this brawl is already over. And three…" I trailed off as I recognized the person who had tickled my senses. _Why the hell is she here?_ I shrugged. "Three, you're already fucked." A look of confusion was plastered onto his face, before it morphed into one of extreme pain as the retort of a shotgun rang out. He was sent flying between me and Adam, crashing into the steps, as the brilliantly burning golden figure that punched him was a lot more clear. _Oh dear, it seems she is still quite angry… Though this may be directed at the guy she just punched._

I watched from the corner of my eye as Adam blanched and hissed several curses under his breath. I valiantly fought to not laugh as I also registered the immediate tension and fear from the Crew up on the steps, despite having Junior and a bunch of assault rifles. _Must. Not. Laugh. Laugh. Equals. Warfare. Warfare. Is. Much Badness._ Managing to do so, I raised my hand and waved cheerfully at the furious newcomer.

"Yang! Good to see you! Thanks for the help, but really, we had it under control." I frowned as I heard a pained groan from behind me and after focusing I realized the man was still conscious as Yang advanced towards me, not the downed man. I brought my hand down from waving only to bring it up to halt her in her tracks. "Hold up." I walked over to the downed man and lifted my right leg over his head. After a moment he attempted to raise his head, causing me to trigger a shotgun blast to hammer his skull back into the ground. Nodding after a moment's inspection I returned to face Yang. "Continue."

I hissed in pain as immediately after my statement she slugged me in the shoulder. Thankfully she had collapsed her gauntlets beforehand, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a mother fucker. "Do you know how worried we've been?" She demanded, eyes blazing with anger and concern. "Ruby almost went nuts when she couldn't get a hold of you when you never came home last night! Why the hell were you ignoring your scroll?"

I rubbed my arm as I took a step back from the angry blond. "Damn Yang, watch the strength, that hurt." I blinked then as her words connected in my head. "Wait, ignoring you? No one's called me or messaged me at all today."

Yang frowned. "Ruby and I both tried to get a hold of you. Hell, Qrow tried when we couldn't." I pondered that for a moment, then blinked as I remembered whose house I stayed at. _Fucking Neo…_

"I think my friend silenced my scroll when I was sleeping." I frowned as I made a note to lock my scroll when I was around Neo. "I wasn't purposely ignoring you guys, I swear."

Yang sighed as the red drained from her eyes in a rather beautiful fashion, leaving only lilac orbs staring at me. "Alright, I forgive you. You coming home tonight?"

"Now that you're not angry at me anymore, sure." I turned back to the Den to see Adam, Junior, and Junior's men all staring at us. I narrowed my eyes as my expression went flat. "You all have ten seconds to be somewhere else before I piss her off and have her whoop your asses, _again._" I chuckled darkly as all of the Crew aside from Junior bolted into the club, Adam just a step behind them. I turned my attention to Junior, who looked more amused than scared. "Adam drinks from my tab until he leaves. Anything he drinks beyond my limit for the day just attribute for tomorrow."

The big man just waved me off. "He's earned his drinks for the night, don't worry about it. Later Opal." Junior turned and wandered back into the Den as the music changed tracks, leaving Yang and I alone surrounded by numerous men and women unconscious or groaning lowly in pain. Yang looked around and then gave me an amused look.

"Why is it every time I take my eyes off you you get into some sort of trouble?" I raised my hand in a calming gesture as I adopted the most innocent look I could muster.

"In my defense, they started it."

"Uh-huh. Sure they did."

* * *

"Orion!" I heard her just a short moment before the chibi Reaper collided with me, also knocking me off my feet. Fortunately, I knew Ruby rather well by now and had braced myself the second I had opened the door. I chuckled as she looked up to me. "Why were you ignoring ussss?"

I patted her on the head gently. "Sorry Rubes. The friend I was staying with decided to pull a small prank and set my scroll to silent." She pouted at me, disbelief written all over her face. "Come on chibi, you think I'd ignore you on purpose?"

Ruby thought about it before shaking her head rapidly, then stopped suddenly as a new thought occurred to her. "What's a chibi?"

I restrained a snicker, even as I heard Yang not even bother and Qrow looked on from the couch relatively amused. "Look it up. Hey Qrow." The grey-haired man gave a polite nod before turning his attention back to his scroll, studying something intently.

"Soooo where'd you go yesterday? I kinda figured you'd have come home with Yang since you left with her." I looked back down at the young girl who had a curious sparkle in her eyes.

"I did come home with Yang though." Her eyes narrowed into a glare, and I held up my hands. "Pax, pax! I actually ran into a friend of mine while we were out and accidentally reminded them of an embarrassing incident. They attempted to get vengeance on me." I then smirked wickedly as a thought occurred to me, but I concealed it so fast that only Qrow might have noticed. "Your sister tried to help them, traitor that she is. It's why I couldn't come home…" I hung my head in mock sadness, though Ruby didn't notice and merely patted me on the head.

"There there... " She turned her attention to her blonde relative and gave a pleasant little smile. "Oh Yaaaang…." Yang immediately began waving her hands in a panicked fashion.

"It wasn't like that Ruby! I swear!" _Oh I am so tempted… Eh, this'll be funnier._

"The first thing she did when she saw me was punching me with her Semblance powered up." I could _feel_ Yang's horrified look as I brought that up, and also the chilly anger of Ruby at her older sister. The younger one released me and took a step towards her sister.

"Yaaaang….." Ruby does ominous really well apparently. Yang hesitated for a moment before bolting back out the door, Ruby a step behind her as she started yelling at the brawler. I chuckled as I plopped down across from Qrow, petting Zwei as he jumped up to sit beside me. Qrow looked up from his scroll and raised an eyebrow. I held up a hand in mock innocence.

"I told no lies. They're not going far, just running around the property. They'll probably come back in whenever Ruby stops yelling." Qrow nodded and went back to his scroll as Zwei crawled into my lap, perfectly content as I scratched behind his ears. The house was silent aside from the dull noises of Ruby's yelling and Yang's pleading in the background.

_It's nice to be home._

**AN: Yay for stuff! I'll keep this short, as this is the first of two chapters today. Why am I cutting it off here? Because I feel it would be a good cut off point, obviously. Also, the RRC has a lot of people I need to mention, and while that normally wouldn't be a problem, the recent developments (RWBY Volume 3, Yang vs. Tifa Death Battle) require me to respond, or at least inform you somewhat of my own direction compared to canon.**

**One thing before we move on I'd like to make clear: As much as I love RWBY as a show, I am not rewriting my fic. I will try to stay true to the characters canonically, but if I have already defined a character in some manner, I'm not changing it. The most blatant examples I can think of right now are Qrow and Nora. While Qrow is cool as hell and Nora's Semblance is quite fitting, as I have already defined these two factors in my AU before we were told of them it means that what I wrote before will trump canon, at least for my world. On the bright side, lots more characters to play with. Omake time!**

**-Omake-**

_**What Neo did.**_

I restrained my eye from twitching. After dinner, I had retreated to my room and pulled out my scroll to fix whatever all Neo had done to it. First, turn off the mute. Easy. Second, check recent changes. That… was where things went wrong.

_She has _waaay_ too much time on her hands…_

My background? Neo half-dressed with her breasts fully visible. My saved videos, like the fight with the Plant Brain? Had a good dozen extra ones it didn't before. Oh, and all the innuendo somehow inserted into _every freaking app on my scroll_, I was coming to find out. Plus the occasional random popup pictures of Neo that was _definitely _NSFW.

_I am soooo lucky that Yang didn't look at my scroll…_

Sighing, I began the arduous process of tracking down everything Neo had done to my scroll, putting back my old defaults… and saving everything that she had inserted into a separate password locked file.

_Never know what might come in handy…_

**Yeah, that omake happened by the way. Have fun picturing… well, pretty much everything I just vaguely touched upon. Neo is a **_**persistent**_** horny little minx, isn't she? And Orion is still a guy, don't judge.**


	25. Chapter 25

**RRC: Double update! Pretty sure I covered all those in the last chapter. **

**Onwards! **

**Juggling People**

"You are an evil evil man." Yang muttered from where she was sitting on the counter. I merely chuckled, turning the page of my current book as I leaned back in my seat.

"I play to win Yang. Keep that in mind at all times. Anyway, if I remember correctly, _you_ punched _me_." Yang threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Once! Not even at full strength! And you sicced my own sister on me even! How did you even do that, she's _my_ damn sister!" I flipped another page with a triumphant smirk adorning my face.

"I am very good at talking to people. Plus Ruby is a little predictable once you break past her shell. She's still a kid, after all." Yang huffed but held her tongue, more than likely not having a decent rebuttal.

After the events of last night I had returned to work the next day, the sisters following me because they had no school for the day. I was also fairly sure they wanted to keep an eye on me after losing all communication yesterday, to make sure I wouldn't disappear again. I didn't mind the company, but I was a little worried about Tukson's opinion. That worry was unfounded when I got to the store and found that Tukson had taken the day off, leaving me to run the store. That man turned out to be surprisingly laid back once you really got to know him.

I had sent Ruby off to buy drinks for us from the nearest coffee shop, getting us all refreshment and allowing Yang to vent at me without her sister's presence. After a short time Yang broke the silence, her tone one of worry. "I wonder where Ruby is. The store isn't that far away…" I shrugged under her worried stare.

"Sun's out. No criminal worth a damn in Vale would be operating right now, and any left wouldn't stand a chance against her. Relax Yang; she probably got sidetracked by something shiny or something." Right as I finished speaking the door slammed open to reveal Ruby… Who was currently hugging herself against a massive gatling gun held by the young woman in the doorway. The young woman in question did not look amused by the chibi wrapped around her weapon.

"Get. Her. Off." I didn't bother looking up, though I could tell Yang was gaping at the figure. Oh yeah, while I had met her, the girls hadn't yet. I grabbed a nearby book with my free hand, judging its weight carefully.

"Hi Coco." I then threw the book at Ruby, smacking her on the head with it. She cried out in pain and released Coco's weapon, grasping where I had hit her with a whimper. "Ruby, what did we tell you about obsessing over other people's weaponry?"

The future leader groaned as she sat up, holding her head. "Not to… But it's so cool looking! And she swings something that massive around one-handed!" Coco, capitalizing on the distraction, immediately collapsed her gun back into handbag mode.

"I don't care Ruby, glomping other people's weaponry is bad. How would you feel if someone did the same to Rose?" Ruby gasped with shock before suddenly appearing right in front of me. _Ruby's top speed is insane._ I carefully did not look up from my book, unwilling to meet her glare.

"No one is allowed to _manhandle_ **my **_**baby."**_ She all but growled at me. I merely chuckled at her.

"And you don't figure other people feel the same about _their_ weapons?" Ruby pouted, but gave up on trying to sway me once she figured I wouldn't look up, letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Fiiine." She turned to a bemused Coco. "I'm sorry for jumping all over your weapon Miss Adel…"

The fashionista just smirked at the little girl before advancing forward and plopping a drink carrier on the counter.

"Just call me Coco kiddo. Apology accepted. Be thankful I grabbed up your guys drinks before I tracked you down." I actually did look up from my book to look at her, the sisters snatching their drinks from the carrier.

"Why did you come here anyway? Another school assignment?" She shook her head even as she grabbed her own drink from the carrier (guess she put her own into it for easy traveling…) letting me grab mine up as it was the last one.

"Nah, just wanted to come see ya again after bumping into little red. I bumped into her at the coffee shop, and she mentioned knowing you so I decided to come visit. Do you do anything beyond working here? Hell, do you even do anything besides read books here?" She questioned. I chuckled, closing my book and setting it to the side as I sipped at my drink. While Yang could ignore the heat and down her drink carelessly, I wasn't protected by a heat-based Semblance like she was.

"To answer your second question, yes I do. You just caught me during a slow time. As for the first, I go out clubbing every few days. I currently can't go to my favorite club due to a… minor issue with one of the higher ranked employees. I also do various odd jobs for some people I know… And I'll hang out with the odd collection I call friends." Yang nodded in the background.

"He's not lying, I've met some of them. He has the weirdest friends." I shrugged, people were people. Coco raised an eyebrow, disbelief on her face.

"You? Clubbing?" I rolled my eyes.

"Why does no one believe me when I say that? Everyone I know is a hater to some degree I swear." Coco simply gave me a little smirk.

"With how lazy you act and the clothes you wear all the time, it's pretty unbelievable." I blinked at her. Looked down at my burnt orange shirt and blue jeans. Looked back up at Coco.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" The fashionista's eyes narrowed.

"While they aren't horrible, you could be wearing so much better. What you have now is so… bleh." I shrugged, uncaring.

"I dress how I like. Only way in hell I'd consider letting you rework my wardrobe is if you were dating me." I pointed my finger at her as her eyes lit up. "No, no, and hell no lady. I barely even know you."

The Beacon student shrugged, unconcerned. "Your loss. How many other beautiful women in your life would honestly consider asking you out?" I pointed at Yang with my thumb.

"Her for one." Yang began to cough and stutter over her drink, while Ruby just gaped at her sister. "One of my friends who works at a bar, another person I know who is actively attempting to seduce me, and possibly my friend Blake if I ever decided to quit messing with her." Coco raised an eyebrow while Yang (who had finally stopped coughing) and Ruby stared at me.

"Quite a list. If you're not lying, that makes you quite the playboy." I snorted.

"Hell no. Most of them are simply because I'm the only guy who isn't intimidated by them who deals with them on a regular basis, treat them rather well, and isn't viewed in a familial manner. And a lot of others reasons, but those are the big ones." Yang's stare had turned into a red-eyed glare.

"You realize I'm going to kick your ass later, right Orion?" I shrugged.

"You will try. I'm getting better." Ruby tilted her head in confusion.

"Uhm… Didn't Yang knock out half of your aura in one Semblance fueled punch last time?"

I slumped in my chair. "Ruby… Don't ruin the moment. Please."

Coco chuckled at the byplay between the three of us. "Well at least someone keeps you in line."

I sipped from my drink. "They try. They tend to fail." I was whacked upside the head rather harshly for that comment. "Gah! Damnit Yang, not when I have a drink! Not cool!"

Yang glared at me. "Then watch what you're saying. I know where you sleep."

I glared back at her. "I know where _you _sleep. And I'm far more spiteful and vicious than you." Pause. "You and Ruby need to leave now, as you turned off my mental filter. Again."

Both of the sisters blinked for a moment, confused. Then they both paled and bolted, shouting goodbyes as they ran, Ruby leaving a trail of rose petals behind her. Coco watched, bemused, as the door slowly shut behind them. "That was… Enlightening."

I let out an evil chuckle. "One of the few spars I won against Yang, she had hit me in the head. I unleashed verbal hell upon her and then won while her guard was down. I regret nothing, though I think my roommates regret letting me keep fighting afterward… I was quite colorful, and those two hit a brilliant shade of red when we were getting patched up."

Coco turned her attention back to me. "Someone's talkative now. Shy around the sisters?"

"Like hell. I get hit in the head, my mental filter gets shut off, so I'll spout off whatever I'm thinking… Which ranges from pondering my current lifestyle to reminiscing all of the hot women I know that I've seen naked."

There was a moment's awkward silence. "Sooo…"

"Of the hot women I know, I have seen more naked or in their underwear than not." Pause. "Before you try to cave my skull in, Velvet is not one of them."

"Oh good." Another pause. "Blondie?"

"Good times. Pretty soon after we had to fight a rage monster in my soul, but whatever. Worth it."

* * *

"Please tell me your back to normal. I'd rather not have my nieces attempt to maim you again for not keeping your mouth shut." These were the words I was greeted with as soon as I walked through the door home.

"You have absolutely no faith in me. That hurts old man." Qrow redirected his gaze from his newspaper to me. "I was fine about half an hour after they left, Qrow."

He returned his attention to his newspaper. "Watch the old man cracks. Injured or not I will make you pay for them if you get too persistent."

"Duly noted." I wandered past him into the kitchen, pausing momentarily to scratch Zwei behind the ears. "How'd you spend your day?"

"Grading. Looking over some of the ideas we came up with in that brainstorm session. Talked to old friends about important changes. A pretty relaxed day compared to dealing with students all the time." Qrow calmly flipped a page on his newspaper, reading intently.

"Nice. Well, let's see here…" I browsed through the contents of the family's kitchen, taking stock of what all they had. _Hmmm… Oh sweet._ "Mind if I cook tonight?"

Qrow looked up from his paper. "Not at all. Pretty rare that you do so though. What's the occasion?"

"Nothing really. I just remembered an old family recipe is all… And we have the ingredients for it." I began pulling out various items from the pantry and fridge. "Oi girls! Want to learn something new?" I called back into the house.

Almost immediately a red blur sped into the kitchen, coalescing into an excited Ruby. Yang was much more casual about her entrance, but had a spark of interest in her eyes.

"You're cooking for once? Should we be worried?" Yang teased, getting me to mock glare at her.

"I'm well aware that in general you're a better cook Yang. I can guarantee you don't know this recipe though." I began pulling out various knives and pans, along with a mixing bowl.

"And what makes you so sure of that?" The blond questioned idly as she watched me work.

I paused for a moment. Brief flashes of memory… And a feeling of contentment. Happiness. Warmth. "Because this is a family recipe. I just happened to remember the recipe itself and what it was to me today." My voice was a bit quieter, and Yang and Ruby stared at me worriedly. I blinked, tearing myself away from trying to reach something I no longer had. "Alright, you two, lesson time."

And the night progressed a lot happier from there. Ruby and Yang both made an effort to memorize the steps. Even Qrow was paying attention from his spot on the couch.

They made an even bigger effort to get me to write down the recipe for them after tasting it. I agreed only after getting their word that they wouldn't teach anyone else it without my permission.

* * *

**(One week later)**

"If this is a plan to ambush me, I'm going to be very pissed off Junior." I spoke to the big man as we walked. Instead of going to work today, Junior had met me outside Tukson's. After telling me that Tukson wasn't opening the shop at all today, he invited me back to the Den to hang out. "I know damn well that the twins are back, and I'd really rather not deal with Melanie trying to take my head off again."

Junior rolled his eyes behind his glasses. I could feel the exasperation coming from him. "Relax would you? Considering I'm the one who helped you get away, you'd have a bit more faith in me. No this isn't a trap, I don't set up my friends like that."

His careful scrutinizing of me did not escape my notice. "Something wrong?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You don't _sound_ that upset over her attempt on your life. I thought you didn't get along with Melanie? Let alone tolerate other people actively attempting to hurt or kill you." I shrugged.

"I don't _dislike_ Melanie. Only reason it seems like we don't get along is she isn't too fond of me and I enjoy sniping back at her whenever she does so at me. As for the attempt on my life…" I sighed. "I'm not going to blame someone for something done not in their right mind. There was more fear, closer to outright terror, than anger there." Another pause. "I literally can't bring myself to blame her. Huh."

Junior was staring at me slack-jawed. "You're… a lot more mellow about all this than I figured."

I shrugged again, pushing him a little bit to get him moving again. "I'm fairly sure this isn't the first time I've dealt with women with trauma on some level. Also fairly sure this won't be the last time. My luck is like that."

"... I admit, I am now curious as to what the hell you may have done in a past life to have the absolutely weirdest life I've come to know about. That's saying a _lot_, coming from an info broker." Junior did resume walking with my prodding, his expression becoming more neutral, though still a bit inquisitive.

"That makes two of us. On the bright side, lots of hot women." And so the conversation carried on as we walked towards Junior's place. As we approached, I noticed that no one was really around. No one just hanging out, no one at the doors… even if it was closed during the day, there was generally _someone _outside.

When I brought it up with Junior, he laughed. "You don't really think I make my boys work every day, do you?"

"It sure as hell seems like it." I looked around as we stepped through the doors. "No offense Junior, but it's really creepy coming here when there's no one else and no music playing."

"And that is why I don't mind Kuma mixing new tracks during the day out here." He lead the way towards the VIP room, opening the door and letting me in. I sat down by the bar as Junior went around and started messing with a few of the drinks before sliding me a glass. He set another down in the seat next to me, catching my attention.

"Someone else showing up?" I sipped at my drink, nodding at the taste. Orange flavored. Junior picked up a nearby crate that was empty of its contents.

"Yeah, they'll be in in a moment. I'm going to go run this out to the trash real fast." At my raised eyebrow he shrugged. "Someone who wants to talk to you alone, and I trust you by yourself in here." And with that he left.

I resumed sipping at my drink, idly wondering who would bug Junior to get a hold of me. Someone who he'd willingly leave alone in his VIP Room. It was an uncomfortably short list, and it didn't take me long to narrow it down even further to two people. Reaching out with my extra sense, I let out a sigh after placing the familiar aura signature. "If this was all an elaborate ruse to catch me off guard, I will tear Junior's head off after I pound you into the ground. But you don't feel too hostile today, Melanie."

A dry snort from behind me before the woman in question took the seat to my side. Carefully taking hold of what was obviously the drink left for her, she spoke quietly. "Junior wouldn't leave you high and dry like that, especially in this room. Miltia would be rather upset if I fought you again too."

"And how would you feel about fighting me again, Melanie?" I asked her idly as I toyed with my glass, being careful not to spill any of my drink.

"What, you can't just read me like you do everyone else and find that out for yourself?" Melanie's voice held little bite to it, despite her words.

"I get the feeling that you wouldn't appreciate that right now." I slugged back the last of my drink, Melanie mimicking the motion with her much fuller glass. "So? Why did you arrange all of this?"

"Hell if I know for sure." Melanie went quiet, gathering her thoughts. "I don't regret attacking you all the time. Or sniping at you verbally. I do regret attacking you with lethal intent."

"So the aggressive twin is apologetic for her aggression?" She directed a glare at me, and I held up my hands in surrender. "Sorry, sorry. Force of habit with you."

She held her glare for a moment, before letting out a weary sigh and turning back to her empty glass. "I shouldn't really be offended. It's not like you aren't justified in your view of me."

"Oh come on. Don't sell yourself short. I've never really disliked you. If I did I wouldn't have saved your pretty ass in Vacuo." I refused to let her put herself down. She was already feeling bad enough.

"True." Melanie toyed with her glass idly. "You're a very confusing person to me. I did dislike you for the longest time. Still do a little bit. At the same time, I am grateful for the whole saving my life thing. And my sister's life too." A moment of quiet as we both stared into our empty cups. "I heard your conversation with Junior."

I jolted in my seat. "How did- clever bastard left his scroll on, didn't he?"

"He's an info broker. Of course he could do something like that without you noticing." She spun on her seat to face me, dead serious. "Do you really forgive me?"

"I didn't even blame you in the first place, Melanie." My voice was quiet as I stared at my reflection in the glass. "You were reacting to an old trauma, bad memories really. You didn't even see me when you were attacking me at the end there, did you?"

She hesitated, before slowly shaking her head. "Someone else. Someone that hurt me and Miltia for petty kicks."

"Thought so." I sighed and pushed my glass away, turning to face her. "I don't dislike you Melanie, and I don't blame you for anything you've done."

"Why not?!" Her voice was a lot louder now. "Are you that broken that you just simply don't care?! Does anything mat-"

She immediately cut off. This was more than likely due to the bladed gauntlet resting next to her head, very close to actually stabbing her. I stared her down with hard eyes. "If you really think I'm that broken you are either retarded, ignorant, or blind." I drew back my hand, collapsing my weapon in the process. I took in a deep breath, considering my next words. "Melanie… I don't blame you for your actions because they were either completely justified or you weren't in your right mind. Yeah, you've attempted to attack me for seeing you almost naked, but a good half of the women I know have done so too."

"How many women have you actually seen nude or near nude that you consider being attacked a logical response?!" Melanie's bewilderment got me to smirk.

"My life has high points and low points. Six, by the way." I chuckled at her expression of disbelief. "Anyway, I don't blame you for that. I don't blame you for all the verbal taunts and insults because I never took them seriously. Plus I kind of egged you on." I shrugged at her glare. "What? You're fun to argue with."

Another moment of glaring before she slumped down on her seat. "Why can't you be normal and yell at me instead of just disregarding everything? It would make you so much easier to deal with."

"Then I'd be less interesting." I paused a moment. "Though on the flip side of that, Neo would bug me less." That got her to giggle. Unsurprisingly she seemed a lot more relaxed since the conversation started.

"But then Miltia wouldn't be interested in you, thus nothing stopping me from maiming you before." She pointed out after she finally got over her giggle fit.

I nodded solemnly. "This is true. I'm pretty sure that even now if you seriously tried to kill me the odds would not be in my favor."

Melanie shrugged, a smirk on her face. "Maaaybe. Aren't you glad I'm such a forgiving person when it comes to all your various transgressions?"

"Lady, I _will_ rig your room with pranks. Don't tempt me." I gave her a mock glare as her smirk merely widened.

"Because you're oh so skilled in stealth. You walk around with _shotgun greaves_ on your legs." Melanie taunted me back.

"Neo likes me more than you. Think any security measures you have would stop _her_?" I smirked at the white twin as she considered that thought.

"_Fuck._"

"Pretty sure Yang would kill us, Miltia would kill me and maim you, and Neo would pout at you for getting to me before she did." I chuckled at the dark look Melanie cast me.

"I hate you. Pretty sure I will always hate you a little bit." I shrugged, getting to my feet.

"So long as you like me more than you hate me, I don't much care." Melanie came to her feet as well, her movements much more graceful than mine.

"Hah, as if I could like someone like you. You're still an arrogant prick who I need to get back at for seeing me naked." I smirked at her.

"Unless you permanently cripple or kill me I'll consider it worth it, as you and your sister have _absolutely_ nothing to be ashamed of." Melanie smirked back at me.

She struck a pose and took a deep breath, emphasizing her figure. "We don't, do we?" She went quiet for a moment. "I… Appreciate, the second chance. I figure if Miltia sees something in you, maybe you're not as bad as I figured."

"Aw, I feel loved."

"Still think you're a pervert."

"One: All men are. Two: _You're _the one who opened the door in _lingerie_ you hypocritical bitch!"

"... I'll take that as a compliment. I don't think you would want me to consider otherwise, would you?"

"... I retract my bitch comment."

* * *

"Well this seems familiar…" I muttered under under breath, careful to avoid any sudden movements and very carefully ignoring the ringing in my head that indicated someone had just hit me rather hard. But that was blatantly obvious from the fact that I was face down on the concrete with a familiar weight straddling me. This time, there was a blade at my throat along with the gun to my head. "Hi Blake. Took you long enough."

"Like you were actually expecting me to attack you." The cat girl replied from on top of me in a relatively neutral tone.

"I knew it was going to happen at _some _point. You're a very vindictive kitty Blake." The gun was pushed harder against my skull, and I could feel the tip of the blade against my throat. "Please watch the sword, I would rather avoid you slitting my throat by accident."

"Like you _accidentally _brought up _that time_ around your _girlfriend?_" Her voice held little humor in it.

"Yang's my roommate, not my girlfriend." I commented idly, holding myself very still.

"Bullshit. What Adam and I walked in on was far from 'just roommates'. You two are obviously attracted to each other." Blake's tone was steady, though there was a trace of mischief now. The blade had moved a bit away from my throat which was nice.

"Something I'm still coming to terms with to attempt to figure out how to deal with her in a manner that _doesn't _get my ass handed to me by her terrifying uncle, let alone her Huntsman father." A moment's pause. "It's not like she's the only girl attracted to me on some level, I'm just stupidly lucky that those who are don't interact with each other on a regular basis."

"To be entirely fair, you are rather likable when you're not being an ass." The blade had been put away at least, though her pistol was still out.

"Says the woman _straddling_ me for the _second time _in _two months_." I bit back at her. She chuckled darkly from her position atop me.

"Did you want me to not straddle you?" Her question made me pause. Before my mouth unfortunately kicked in.

"I'd prefer you straddling me so I can actually see you and _goddammit _this is your fault for hitting me in the head Blake!" I felt her shrug from atop me, completely unapologetic.

"It was the quickest way to bait you into saying nice things so I have less reason to maim you brutally." I tilted my head as best as I could to stare at her.

"First, did you actually manipulate me just so you could hear someone say nice things? Second, what is with the hot women I know and the threats of maiming me?" Said manipulative violent woman reached down and patted my cheek in a mocking manner.

"Poor Orion… Maybe it's your inner masochist leaking out?" I growled at her.

"Lady I will tie you down and stab you repeatedly." She gave me a mischievous little smirk.

"Promise?" I gaped at her.

"The hell woman, I didn't mean it that way! Aaaand now I'm thinking about that, _fuck_." I glared at her. "What happened to you being horribly embarrassed when we last talked?"

She adopted a deadpan expression. "I felt it would be better to fight fire with fire. Plus refer to earlier comment on you being rather likable when you're not being an ass."

"_Please _tell me you're not romantically attracted to me. That would be _so_ many levels of awkward." I prayed in what little was currently available of my private mind that she wasn't. _I have enough shit to deal with, I don't need my life to become dating Sim game on top of it! Or at least more of a dating Sim than it already is!_

"Yeaaah… No. While I'm sexually attracted to both genders, I much prefer women in terms of personality. No offense." She added that last bit in a completely blank tone.

"I'm thrilled that you're not. No offense, but I have enough issues, one of the more pressing is how uncomfortable this current position is." Almost immediately the gun was pointed at my head again.

"If that was a crack at my weight…"

"Do I _look_ suicidal to you?" I asked incredulously. "No, it's because you're forcing my waist into the ground with your current position and due to earlier _images_ this is bordering painful. In other words, get off me before I start resorting to gratuitous amounts of violence!" She hummed as if thinking about it, before finally getting off. "_Thank _you."

As I climbed back to my feet she had sheathed her weapon on her back. "Just remember, you still owe me bribes."

I waved off her threatening tone. "Yes yes, threats of horrific maiming on account of walking in on you masturbating to erotica, blah blah." Her face had gone red again. "Mind if I ask why you view me as attractive? I _know_ you're surrounded by a lot of men on a regular basis."

She gave me the blankest look she could muster under the given circumstances. "I am surrounded by men who are _way_ too in tune to their hormones who _keep leering _at me, occasionally criminals, and my older brother figure. I have _standards_, thank you."

"Never said you didn't." I quipped as I brushed some dust off. "Though, since you can't really blame me because you hit me in the head, I've got a question."

"I'm not going to like this question am I?"

"Probably not. Do faunus go into heat? I've been curious but I've always found conflicting evidence.."

"I _don't _want to talk about it." She suddenly seemed very small as she poked the ground.

"No seriously, it's been bugging me and I know you all have a varying amount of animal traits-" I cut off as she swiped at me with her weapon.

"I _said_ I don't want to talk about it!"

* * *

"Did you really ask her that?" Qrow asked me from across the table. I had been regaling him (and maybe Zwei, but who knows what that dog pays attention to. He was likely more occupied with the head scratching) with my tales of today's (mis)adventures.

"What? I know I'm not the only one who's curious and she had already hit me in the head, she should've seen it coming." Qrow pondered that for a moment.

"Be that as it may…" His eyes turned hard. "I am more curious about your reaction to Yang's feelings towards you." I slammed my head into the table.

"Knew this was coming." I paused for a second. "Thank you for sending the girls out shopping, this would be really awkward if there was any chance of her walking in."

"I'm not that cruel to people who haven't pissed me off. You're not the answering the question." I could _feel_ how close he was to generating killing intent towards me in an attempt to pressure me to spill.

"Fuck off Qrow, I've been trying really hard to not think about it for the past week and a half." I grumbled, ignoring how blatantly disrespectful I was being to the most terrifying man I knew. "I don't know alright? I'm obviously flattered, Yang's beautiful and has a great personality. It's not that I don't like her…."

"You don't know just how you view her." Qrow had calmed down a little as I laid out the situation.

"Bingo. Plus, I'm sure a little bit of her attraction is I'm apparently the only guy who treats her like a normal person who actually has real problems. So who knows how much of it will last. Plus all the other women who have shown an interest in me…" Qrow chuckled.

"I'm glad you're smart enough to realize just how bad a position you're currently in. Well, if you want a way to avoid your problems for a bit, I may have an idea." I brought my head up to stare at him.

"Why does this sound very concerning?" I was a bit worried. Last time someone sent me away from my problems, I had to fight a _giant plant of doom_.

Qrow waved off my supposed worries. "A message from Ozpin. Since you've refined your weaponry recently and bear a unique source of knowledge, he'd like to ask you to accompany a team of students and a Huntsman to investigate something in Forever Fall."

I tilted my head. "A mission so close to Beacon's grounds? That's ominous."

Qrow shook his head. "Actually, it makes sense. Let's some of the first years get training somewhere they can easily call for evac or backup. Interested?"

"I do have a job you know. All these people asking me things and not factoring in my boss's opinion…." I grumbled under my breath halfheartedly.

"An arrangement can be worked out with Tukson. Tell me honestly, do you really want to stay here to figure things out?" Qrow asked.

_Hmmm… Go off with a team of Beacon students and a trained Huntsman to investigate a disturbance in a _GRIMM INFESTED _forest, or stay here and figure out my feelings._

"Am I getting paid?"

"Generously."

"... I'm in."

_I'm not running away, I'm advancing towards future victories. And less pain._

**AN: CLIIIFFFHAAAAANGER! Also, I'm ALIIIIIIIVE!**

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

**Nah, I ain't that much of an asshole.**

"I'm sure you're all aware of one another." Ozpin spoke calmly from his seat behind his desk. In front of him were Professor (Doctor) Oobleck, Team CFVY, and Qrow's odd housemate Orion, who would be serving in advisory capacity. "I've gathered you all together for an important mission. Yes Miss Adel?"

"Why exactly is bookstore clerk here?" She asked impudently, jerking a thumb at said oddity.

"Bookstore clerk my ass… Toss you into the nearest mud puddle." Ozpin very carefully ignored Orion's muttered comments. He saw Miss Scarlatina's ears twitch but she seemed to ignore his words as well.

"Because, Miss Adel, Mr. Orion has experience with what exactly I am sending you to do." That got everyone's attention, and Orion leaned back in his chair, a distant look in his eye.

"Another anomaly scaring the Grimm? Any chance it's the same as last time?" The young man spoke calmly, but didn't seem to entirely there. He was more than likely mentally reviewing the last time he dealt with such a thing.

"Unfortunately, no. All we have been able to make out is a minor distortion in the air itself." Ozpin watched as the young man let out a grim chuckle, drawing attention back to him.

"I think the better word would be "fortunately", Headmaster. That plant was a bitch to kill in the end and I'd really rather not fight another one." Ozpin inclined his head towards Orion.

"True enough." He returned his attention to the team of first years. "As you may have gathered, your mission students is to investigate this distortion. Find out anything that might be useful. It is currently located in the northern area of Forever Fall, but it is moving slowly southward as time passes. Doctor Oobleck will be accompanying you as Senior Huntsman and Mr. Orion will be serving as an advisor due to his… familiarity, with these odd situations." He paused a moment to let it sink in. "Of course, any and all schoolwork will be excused for the duration of your mission…"

Miss Adel immediately brightened. "We're in." Ozpin held back a chuckle. While the other members of her team were quite studious in nature, Miss Adel was notorious for being late or not turning in assignments. It wasn't that she was unintelligent, it was more that she _really_ preferred action to bookwork.

"Excellent! We shall begin packing immediately! We will all meet at the air pad in exactly 2 hours!" With his declaration the good doctor sped off, Team CFVY close behind him as they went to assemble their gear. Ozpin turned towards the only other occupant of the room.

"I assume by your lack of motion that you're all geared up?" The young man chuckled.

"I had a bit more warning, all of my stuff is already on the Bullhead. I had a few questions that I assumed you wouldn't want me asking around the students." Ozpin sipped from his ever present coffee mug.

"Go ahead then, Orion."

"Any traces of magic in the area? Any sign of anything at all related to the distortion?" Orion rattled off the questions rapidly, now much more serious.

Ozpin slowly shook his head. "No and no. There _is_ an unidentifiable form of energy it seems to be radiating, but we are unclear what. Your ability makes you a good match for investigating this."

The young man sighed, standing and beginning to stretch himself out. "Well at least I'm not going in totally blind. Plus I did pack more than a few dust vials just in case…" He began advancing towards the door before pausing and looking back at the Headmaster.

"... You're totally going to make Coco write up a report for how this mission goes." It wasn't a question.

Ozpin carefully brought his mug up, hiding the lower half of his lips. "It is expected of all Hunters and Huntresses to write a detailed report of anything they may encounter in the field, along with the measures taken to deal with the situations that may arise and opinions on anything they may have observed. This is especially true for mission leaders."

"... You're a sadistic man Oz."

"I run a school designed to teach how to deal with the most vicious monstrosities known to mankind filled with hormonal teenagers armed with lethal weaponry." A pause to sip from his coffee. "I am also forced to deal with multinational politics due to my position and must work out the economics of running said school, considering also extra costs such as lodging and supplies out in the field." Another sip of coffee. "I believe I am entitled to a bit of minor amusement that I can derive from my position without gross abuse of my power."

* * *

"Ya know, I've never heard of Huntsmen having _advisers _with them on field missions." Coco commented while overlooking her weapon. We were all assembled at the air pad, having a good ten minutes to spare after stowing all of our gear. Doctor Oobleck was busily doing… _something_, on his scroll, Velvet and Fox were chatting quietly nearby while Yatsuhashi was sitting on the ground, meditating.

I was leaning against the Bullhead, mentally reviewing everything I knew about the current team. Coco's words drew me out of my musing and I turned my attention to her. "I'm not surprised. It is fairly rare, considering Huntsmen are taught to be incredibly self-sufficient and knowledgeable in their own right. However, you can't know everything, and aside from exceptions such as the good Doctor," at this I inclined my head towards the green-haired man, "very few specialize in anything unrelated to Grimm in some manner. Various specialists may then be asked to accompany a team, depending on the mission. A pretty basic example would be a foreman from the Schnee Dust Company to overlook a possible new mine."

Doctor Oobleck had rushed over, finishing what he was doing and catching the topic at hand. "Indeed! I myself have gone on numerous missions alongside civilian specialists. There are certain parameters of this type of mission that must be followed!" He paused to drink from his thermos while everyone directed their attention to him. "Our number one priority, is the safety of our civilian escort! As they are generally incapable of defending themselves adequately against the Grimm, it is our job to protect them so they may carry out their assigned task! This type of mission is considered exceedingly difficult, as there is a whole new array of strategies and tactics that must be carried out to protect our one or at times numerous civilians!"

I cut in on the doctor, raising a gauntlet covered fist. "Fortunately for you kiddos, this isn't your typical escort mission." At my words, a blade sprouted from my wrist with a metallic _shing!_ "Unlike a grand majority of your escorts, I am capable of defending myself to a pretty decent extent. As well, since we have Doctor Oobleck accompanying us, I will remain near him during any possibility of combat, thus further ensuring my own safety."

Velvet spoke up from her position next to her teammates. "Ah… You seem pretty confident in the professor. Also, why do you keep calling him doctor?"

I nodded towards her. "In reverse order, I address him as doctor because he is one in the field of history and archaeology, and so I address him by his earned title. You kids can address him as professor, as to you he is, but to me he is a highly educated voice in a pretty broad field of study." I shrugged. "As for my confidence in him, all fully fledged Huntsman are perfectly capable of high level combat. All teachers at Beacon are full Huntsman, not counting the library staff and…" I trailed off and directed a look at Oobleck. "I'm not sure about the nurse?"

The green haired man shook his head rapidly. "Unfortunately no, while our dear nurse is also a fellow doctor in the fields of medicine and biology, she is not combat qualified against the Grimm."

"Thank you." I shifted my attention back to the team. "Anything else?"

This time Yatsuhashi spoke up. "Goals?"

Oobleck fielded this question. "Aside from the safety of our escort as I stated earlier, our goal is to find the disturbance in Forever Fall that acts as a deterrent to the Grimm, investigate in, and if we can not find some way to harness the anomaly as a defensive measure we must eliminate it before it discombobulates the normal Grimm movement patterns, thus making the forest even more unsafe for student and Huntsman alike!"

"Or, in plain english," I drawled, "we find the anomaly and either use it or destroy it before it can have any permanent effect." I shrugged, moving away from the bulkhead. "Honestly it's a simple recon-escort mission, at heart anyway."

Coco spoke up. "Any final thing we should be aware of before heading out?"

I paused, stopping my turn towards the bulkhead. "Ah, yeah. One thing." I turned back to the assembled Huntsmen and Huntsmen trainees. "If it comes to the Grimm, if Oobleck says something, do it. When it comes to dealing with the anomaly, unless Oobleck says otherwise, if I say something, you do it. Odds are, I know what I'm talking about."

Oobleck nodded in his normal rapid manner. "That is correct and I reinforce his words with my own, as that is the reason he is here! Now, time is up, let us head out!"

* * *

"So, when I heard 'anomaly scaring away Grimm', I gotta say, I expected something more impressive." These oh so helpful words came from Coco, who was leaning on one knee and peering at the distortion in the air, which looked remarkably like lines from a heat wave, just barely visible to the human eye.

"Pretty sure you thought the same thing up to the point I aimed shotguns at you for swinging at me." I remarked idly, ignoring her now furious gaze. "Doctor? Talk to me here."

"According to previous reports, the distortion in front of us is approximately a sphere of some sort, with it is estimated a radius of 4 meters. All Grimm had moved out from the clearing it appeared in a good 15 minutes before it had done so, and it travels at a speed of roughly half a mile an hour. It passes through all plant life and inorganics without any sign of effecting the passed through objects, however it has yet to encounter any Dust or mobile organic." Oobleck paused for a moment to drink from his thermos. "Also, the Grimm have shown no true signs of terror, their behavior more likened to avoiding an unwanted nuisance."

"Aaand that's all she wrote. So! Who wants to walk into it first?" I asked brightly, immediately feeling the stares of disbelief. "Look, it's either we lure a Grimm into it and watch what happens, or we walk into it. I was kind of joking, as I can _feel _that thing."

Velvet spoke up curiously. "Feel? My instincts are telling me to avoid it, but it's not out of fear or anything…"

I turned to her. "Oh right, guess no one informed you guys. I possess a sixth sense, something we believe to be associated with my Semblance. I can _feel_ souls and other metaphysical things. And what I'm getting is just a giant blaring of _twisted space_. Which is bad, in case you haven't fig- shit." I cut off.

Fox looked over at me. "I get the feeling we're not going to like what you're about to say."

"It's stopped moving. Like entirely. And somehow, despite being an unliving inanimate ripple on reality, it knows we're here. Which is _bad._" I slowly turned around to stare as it began to raise into the air.

"This.. is going to suck, isn't it?" Coco's tone was calm, but it was very forced.

The senior huntsman of the group sipped from his thermos as we all watched the anomaly rise above us. "Indubitably so, Miss Adel."

"Well, fuck." Those were my last words before we were all engulfed.

**Should I leave it here? Yeah, think I'll leave it here. But, just for the hell of it, sneak peek at the next chapter!**

"_ZOMMMBBIIIEEEE!"_

**BOOM!**

"_Why is Yatsuhashi fighting a zombie with badass dreadlocks expertly wielding a tombstone?"_

"_Yatsuhashi _really _dislikes the idea of zombies. He tends to freak out. Very loudly and violently."_

_I fought very hard to prevent my eye from twitching. I was not entirely successful. "Of _course _he does…"_

**Yeah, I'm evil. Deal with it. So, I know these two chapters took a while, and I am so sorry my fans! Writers block + school + work + getting a PS4…. IT ADDED UP MAN.**

**Yeah, I feel bad about that. So, Merry Christmas Eve? For those who celebrate anyway. Now, there has been a **_**lot **_**of things happening in RWBY since I last posted, which means a fair chunk of AN to talk about what exactly I'm doing. Where to start...**

**Characters! Now, I'm not accepting OCs. While I'm flattered for you all offering, the only other OC that will be in this story for a long ass time was planned to be put into this story MONTHS AGO. Before y'all bitch, it isn't even mine. It's another Author's, who needs a new purpose cause their character kinda ended up with A LOT of loose ends. And like I said, the addition in question? Was decided in like July. I think. Have to double check the conversation. Also, I will admit I might have considered taking OCs so Orion could interact with more people. But RWBY Volume 3 says "hey, look at this!" and gives me a **_**bucketload **_**of characters (I **_**really **_**want to write with Flynt and Neon). So, yeah, lots of characters to play with yay! But hey, if you guys like your OCs, you should totally write their stories! Because at the end of the day, barring some exceptions *coughKishimotocough* the best storyteller for your character is gonna be you.**

**Next on the agenda… would be the aforementioned RWBY Volume 3. Which, by the way, is KICKASS so far. If you haven't watched it… go. DO EET NAOW! *cough* Anyway, there's a lot of things in Volume 3. New characters, new organizations, new interpretations of Semblances, and… magic. So, there's magic now. In RWBY. Huh. I feel… Really, really justified. Granted, in canon RWBY it's limited to 4**_**ish**_** people, but whatever. I can work with that. So then, here's the thing? Orion doesn't know **_**anything**_** pertaining to Volume 3. IE, he doesn't know about the secret organization protecting the seasonal sisters (SOMEONE ADOPT THAT), and that magic existed in canonical RWBY. He **_**will not**_** recognize **_**anyone**_** from Volume 3, save my interpretation of Qrow, cause… yeah, I'm not retconning my entire damn fic because canon says so. I covered that last chapter though, so I won't waste space here and simply move on with the parting comment of I will be using stuff given to us… Now to figure out how to work Nora's electro-charging power into her Gamer Semblance I ended up giving her… meh, doable.**

**So, I mentioned last chapter, I had a… minor issue pop up, due to the Yang vs. Tifa Death Battle. Now, I love Death Battles. Those guys are awesome. However, they kind of gave me a problem… wherein Yang **_**tanked a hit of at least 1400 tons of force.**_** So, I'm just going to skip the physics lesson, and make this very basic: in Earth laws, that kind of blow would have turned her into paste. Sooo… I have a minor problem, in which I implied Orion has more Aura than Yang, and thus can tank legendary amounts of damage. Thing is…. LEGENDARY AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IMPOSSIBLY STUPID AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE. *rage* *cough* Ahem. That, plus the fact that Orion, starting now, will be adventuring to **_**other dimensions…**_** gave me a huge problem I needed to figure out. Solution? Say fuck it. In serious battles, RWBYverse characters will not be able to take legendary amounts of damage like that **_**unless they are in RWBY or a universe where being able to take such damage is acceptable within the laws of its reality.**_** *ponders* And Gundam universes, but ya'll can chill, as I'm not a fan of the grand majority of mecha animes, except for Code Geass. Which… I'm not touching. Code Geass, while I love the story, IS A HELLHOLE. Buuuut that's off topic. Outside of serious battles, I will rampantly abuse the fact that characters can take bullshit amounts of damage and laugh it off for comedic value. *see Orion getting his ass kicked by pissed off woman. Again. Or at least attempts to do so.***

**Next! *reads agenda* Oh right, alternate worlds thing. I'm… just going to wing it? Because yeah, fuck differing physical laws. I'll try to be realistic with it, though. But yes, Orion will be going to all sorts of different worlds. That sneak peek up there, is a hint to the first one he ends up in. Because some nonspecific deity likes messing with his life. If you figure it out, please please PLEASE do not post it in the reviews. Because… fuck, spoilers piss me right the hell off, and I hate anyone who does so. I give you this warning, if you put a possible spoiler in a review… wait no, that's kind of vague, really mean, and can easily spiral out of control. Fuck it, Imma just say please don't spoil shit, and slap a SPOILERS tag on the reviews. Read at your own damn peril.**

**Speaking of reviews… I am flattered. I really, really am. As of the time that this chapter goes up, and I double check, there have been FIFTY EIGHT reviews of my fic since the last update back in October. Which… is awesome, by the way. You are all awesome. But… that poses a problem. Cause, you look at last chapter? That's a good 3 1/2 pages taken up SOLELY by reviews. And… I can't keep doing that. I'd feel really bad writing personalized responses to reviews, and forcing you all to read blocks of text. Soooo… I'll probably end up just covering the highlights of the reviews in general, and mentioning you by name if you review. Sorry guys, I really do enjoy responding to you, but I can't keep doing it with as much as this fic has grown… By the way, ya'll are awesome anyway. Because I kind of figured this would've died a while ago. But all of you seem to like it so much, that I couldn't stop. And here we are, with 200+ followers. THIS SHALL BE ONE OF THE GREATEST RWBY INSERTS EVER. I will try my damnedest to keep on going.**

… **Ok, so just looked over the RRC last chapter. Actually shorter in comparison than I thought… So, I might still keep the RRC. That's up to you guys though. If I get enough people who want me to keep responding, I will. If the complaints of having to read past a giant wall of bold text before the story outweigh those who want responses, then I'll go with the above plan.**

**Finally, many thanks to fellow authors Vixen Tail, the reaper of insanity, and ThePhantomScribe for letting me bounce ideas off of you. If you don't know who they are, they are just a few of my favorite authors. Vixen Tail is a writer of SIs and other fics, dabbling in areas from Katekyo Hitman Reborn to Naruto. the reaper of insanity is a fellow author who borrowed Orion for his own story, or at least a variation of Orion I lended to him. And ThePhantomScribe is a writer for the RWBY section of this site, known best for his works (I think…) "The Gamer Girl" and "Chronicle". You guys are awesome for letting bounce ideas off of you. Oh, and also thanks to Gaming Ikari for the advice. Was helpful in figuring out how exactly to deal with these past two chapters.**

**I… think that's everything for now? *double checks* Oh shit, I nearly forgot and may have pissed off a lot of people! Soo... that 'faunus go into heat' crack earlier? Time to go into that. Aside from the _rare_ exception, faunus in this world don't actually go into heat. They _are_ more in tune to their instincts and hormones, but that's about it when it comes to sexual matters. The rare exceptions I mentioned can be likened to a random mutation in genetics, so it's a very slim chance of coming across a faunus in heat. If they _do_ go into heat, it's for only like a week every 3 months or longer, starting at the age of 16. Most faunus hate talking about it, though, as it is kind of a touchy subject? Because those rare mutations can color human-faunus relations very badly, as humans don't go into heat. Unfortunately for poor poor Orion... Velvet and Blake, due to sheer luck, happen to be capable of going into heat. Yeah, he's pissed off at me, so are the girls. DANCE PUPPETS DANCE. However, this is _purely_ for comedic effect from time to time. And/or to push the limits of the relationships Orion establishes with Velvet and Blake. So, as I've cleared that up as much as I want to...**

**Now, that's everything. As of the time I am posting these chapters up, it is Christmas Eve for the West Coast, so Merry Christmas Eve my loyal followers! I hope you enjoy this Christmas gift to you, a day early! And a Merry Christmas to all of you tomorrow! Unless you don't celebrate Christmas, so happy holidays in general. If **_**that **_**offends you, then I wish you good tidings in general instead. **


	26. Chapter 26

**RRC: Well, no complaints on the length of the RRC at least…**

**ShadowWalker: *gives cookie* Nah, Orion is nowhere near badass enough to emulate Deadpool. **

**reaper: Pot, meet kettle.**

**Guest: We're still a good 9 months or so away from canon. Lots of ground to cover…**

**cv snowblind: never seen S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Sorry. *gives cookie***

**tdychko: Only one zombie. And Neo and pretty much everyone else in RWBY we won't be seeing for a few chapters, unfortunately.**

**Xuan Tian Shang Ti: *gives cookie* the recent release of star wars, my friend. Side note, yep, Soul Eater. I'll explain why here in the AN.**

**Bob-870mt: Glad you enjoy! Yeah, Neo is **_**lots**_ **of fun to write. She's currently all pouty that she won't pop up in the next few chapters, unfortunately. Yes I have a Neo muse, why don't you?**

**AnalPoptarts: the only damn reason I can state your name is because this fic is already M rated. Glad you enjoy.**

**dvilleza: Yeah, she kind of missed super hardcore in this universe.**

**tri2: the only person I **_**plan **_**to bring back from Soul Eater… Well, that would be telling. As for Blair, I might, just because I can see her shenanigans fitting in **_**so **_**well with Orion's current lifestyle. We'll see though.**

**Hikari-san: Your name is now abbreviated. And yeah, that's… that's probably going to happen.**

**Oyshik: Nah, no Cinder pairing. While a beautiful woman, she is a touch creepy? Or so says Orion. As for when we hit Beacon and most of the cast head off to boarding school… I have plans.**

**Observer: Glad you enjoy! I don't really know what I want to do with Cinder yet. Meh, I'll think of something.**

**Edus: Glad you enjoy!**

**Vixy: *nod nod* Bunny girl be popular.**

**Drmethilon: Or how both series are based around students learning how to fight with the power of their soul, or that the protagonist wields a scythe as a weapon? And while all this is true… It's not going to happen. I might write alternate stories to that effect but "canon" Orion as it were won't accumulate abilities like Blade of Needless. That would make him ridiculously overpowered, something I'm trying to avoid. He might visit those worlds, but he won't pick up game-breaking abilities. He already has one in Aura, which I justify through it being stated EVERYONE HAS ONE. He doesn't need more. As for his Semblance… Orion isn't much of a conqueror, is all I will say.**

**potato man: I have played Borderlands, and I might visit it. Depends.**

**Eiys: *gives cookie* Sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you did like what you first read. I'll get around to updating those chapters to be more readable at some point.**

**TheLostBookLover: Glad you enjoy! *gives cookie just in case* And yes, he should watch himself huh?**

**AnerianJames: Sorry man, but I've decided that for now, aside from the author who I will be collaborating with, Orion will be remaining within this fic. I appreciate the thought, but for now I need to keep him home. Ish. **

**Wywrn: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy! Personally, the getting things done part is because to Orion, he's well aware that he's outclassed and playing catch-up. However, on the other side, he refuses to just let things remain "the way it is", as his upbringing on our world leads him to question and be extremely open-minded. **

**Infinity Soul: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy! I've only ever seen SAO Abridged since between this chapter and the last, but I will agree to to the hilarity.**

**Phil Black: *gives cookie* Thanks for the honesty, I appreciate it.**

**Smithrooks: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Psykotic: *gives cookie* Glad you're enjoying! As for his memory, it is not infallible, and only accurate (kind of) up to the end of season 2. He has no idea what happens in 3, and he has been in Remnant for long enough that his memory is a bit spotty. As for the pairing… I have plans upon plans for this, and tormenting you all with the possibilities amuses me. It's like a Mass Effect SI, or a Persona fic.**

**Hellfire: *gives cookies* Orion is generally treated the same by people even when they find out more about him, simply because of his general apathy to how most people view him. Even if they find out that he's from a different dimension, most people he interacts with on a regular basis won't really care because that's in the past, especially when he outlines his extremely sketchy memory of his past life. As for Orion in action… Well, he won't be winning, but he won't be losing per se.**

**ShadowWalker: *gives cookie* They're not in any **_**real**_ **danger… kind of… meh, they're combat trained, they're fine.**

**Guest: More of a lesson on differing schools.**

**Orangemen: *gives cookie* He's trying to talk about it less. He will talk about it a fair bit in the coming chapters, but not because he entirely wants to.**

**Opinionated Guest: Well, that's probably true. Except, A. Orion cannot give a damn, B. from his point of view, there's not much that can be done to fix it except for somehow dealing with Cinder, who is a master at moving in the shadows, and C. to quote FFX, "This is my story".**

**Various guests who worry about me and the story: *gives out cookies* I'm not dead! Yet. Just very very busy, for reasons I will detail in the AN.**

**200 reviews. *blinks* Holy shit I feel loved. By any chance though folks can we keep the number of followers I have above the number of reviews? That would be even more awesome.**

**Alright, here we go folks! If you haven't pieced it together by now, then I'll just straight up tell you: it's Soul Eater, during the remedial exam arc. The fight with Sid, explicitly. Let's go!**

**Soul Weapon vs. Soul Armor**

So, at this point we all know that there are other universes. Yes, you, reader. How am I aware of you? Well, that's a story ain't it? You ever hear of the warp? That chaos dimension thing in Warhammer? That's pretty close to the space between dimensions I'm stuck in/being launched through/just entered. Time isn't exactly linear right now, here, fuck it whatever you get the damn point. Anyway, random shit will happen to normal people who aren't fully prepared yeah? Tasting purple, knowing what anger, the emotion, sounds like, etc. That kind of crazy shit, it's worse than the stuff you hear about how drugs fuck you up.

Normal people, with five senses. I, being me, have a sixth sense, which is also twisted like a kitten with a ball of yarn. So I am now aware of the fourth wall. Yeah, I see you assholes, reading this. Try living with this kind of chaotic luck, huh? I blame you author man.

**Fuck off, you're getting laid in the future. Thought I made that clear by now.**

True, true. Hey, this is going to wear off right? I want my planned power back, not Deadpool mimicry.

**Eh, whenever you arrive. It'll fade. Probably. *checks notes* Yeah, you'll be fine, it'll be gone, and instead of remembering this you will know what fear tastes like.**

Isn't that rather blatant of a ripoff?

**Only if the same people who read this have the same taste as I do… Meh. Imitation **_**is**_ **the sincerest form of flattery. That said, we're in yet another multiverse from those guys. **

Thankfully. I really would not want to deal with that. Or them. Horrifically powerful OCs that are balanced only by humor and the sheer amount of trauma they have gone through… Oh look a light! Later dudes, I'm going to go fight… A zombie? Da fuck? Whatever, peace!

… **Yeah, this wasn't what I originally planned. This is way funnier though. Continuing on, folks.  
**

* * *

"O-!" _Fuck… This hurts… _Pain. Pain everywhere. Including my head, surprisingly. I didn't feel restricted in any way, though, so I don't think I'm hurt. Phantom pain? If you can call it that…

"Ori-!" _So loud…_ I let out a groan as I felt someone shaking me, signifying I was awake at least.

"Orion! Come on you have to get up!" _That_ voice sounds familiar. Identifying it as Velvet, I opened my eyes to see her concerned expression looking down at me.

"Gaah… Fuck, that was _not_ pleasant." I slowly sat up, Velvet moving away a little bit to provide room for me to do so. "Everyone else alright?"

"Coco and Fox are still out of it, I was going to try to wake them after I got you up. Any injuries?" The bunny-girl worriedly looked over my form, searching for anything blatant.

"Pain that's fading… And I can taste fear now. That's… huh." I shook my head and focused, pushing that random tidbit aside. "I'll okay, Vel. Get the other two- wait, where's Yatsuhashi?"

The sole faunus of our group sheepishly averted her gaze. "Well…"

"**ZOMMMBBIIIEEEE**!" I heard the man in question roar out.

_**BOOM!**_

I shifted my attention to where the sound came from. "Why is Yatsuhashi fighting a zombie with badass dreadlocks expertly wielding a tombstone?"

"Yatsuhashi really dislikes the idea of zombies. He tends to freak out. Very loudly and violently." Velvet was very carefully not looking at me or the fight in question.

I fought very hard to prevent my eye from twitching. I was not entirely successful. "Of course he does…" I staggered to my feet, noticing the two kids just watching the large young man with a large sword fight the zombie who was also screaming incoherently. The _well-armed, _very _familiar-looking_ kids. "Go get the other two up. I'll… talk to the locals."

Velvet nodded and rushed off towards where I could see Coco and Fox slumped on the ground. I slowly rolled my neck, relieving a bit of tension carefully as I calmly walked towards the kids, casually ducking under a hail of gravel from the nearby fight. "Sup kiddos. Sorry to interfere with your fight. Name's Orion. You two?"

They both blinked a few times in confusion. _Oh shit, I really hope they speak English… _Finally, and thankfully, the dirty blond girl holding the scythe dragged her attention away from the fight to me.

"Oh, sorry sir. My name is Maka Albarn, and this is my partner, Soul." The latter half of her sentence was punctuated by the scythe's head lifting _by itself _to stare at me with the _eye at the base of the blade. _

"Nice to meet you. Your friend seems pretty capable, holding off our old teacher like that." My thought processes immediately stopped.

_You have _got _to be fucking kidding me._

I slowly shifted my attention to the blue haired kid with a pretty strong build that seemed to be building up to something. "Blue hair. If your intro takes more than five seconds, I will castrate you, because you look like the type to be narcissistic."

Almost immediately the kid deflated. Apparently he could tell something from my body language that meant I was serious. I wouldn't _actually_ castrate the kid though. That'd be wrong. "I'm Black Star, and this is my partner Tsubaki."

The chain scythe _in his hands_ glowed brightly for a moment before re-materializing as a well-endowed young woman roughly my own age. She bowed courteously. "It is nice to meet you, sir. Thank you very much for your help, it was quite timely."

I waved my hand flippantly at Tsubaki and the rest, turning back to watch Yastuhashi swing powerful blows at the zombie who deftly dodged or blocked them. "The kiddos are training to help people, so regardless of circumstances they would more than likely step in to help someone. And apparently they interfere when it involves zombies." I blinked a few times as I realized Yatsuhashi had yet to stop screaming. _Kid's got lung capacity._ "Don't entirely blame them, there's a lot of horror stories about zombies and other undead…"

Maka blinked. "Other undead? Like Vampires?"

"So long as they don't sparkle, yes. If they sparkle, they must be killed with nuclear fire." I could _feel_ the weird looks I was being given. "If you have to ask, you're better off not knowing. So, question to you kiddos."

"Kiddos? I am the greatest man-" I leveled a kick at Black Star's head that he ducked under. "Oi!"

"You younger than me? Yes? Calling you whatever the hell I feel like. Anyway." I gestured in the general direction of Team CFVY (who were slowly coming around due to Velvet's tender care… and the nonstop scream of Yatsuhashi). "Do any of you happen to know where we all came out from?"

Maka hesitantly spoke up. "You… might have come out of a hole in the air…"

I directed my attention towards her. "This hole appear out of nowhere or something?"

She scuffed her foot on the ground, looking a bit embarrassed. Soul's soul (shut up, I know it's confusing) was also radiating shame. "Well…"

Black Star spoke up. "It appeared after she missed with her Witch Hunter and nearly hit me."

An enraged blonde and scythe turned their attention to him. "I _said_ I was sorry!"

I held up a hand, feeling my eye began to twitch. "You manifested an ability strong enough to cut a _rip in reality_ and you _**MISSED?**_"

"We didn't actually rip reality! We hit some weird tombstone that wasn't even there a second ago!" Maka yelled defiantly and I could feel Soul glaring at me for the crack.

I paused mid-facepalm. "Weird tombstone? What did it look like?"

Soul spoke up. "We didn't get too good a look before it got obliterated. It had these bright blue glowing marks all over it, and was shaped in an eight point cross."

I pondered that for a moment. It seemed like _something_ had intervened and left a "key", so to speak, that was turned when Maka and Soul's Witch Hunter, which is in itself a massive release of energy, collided with it, thus opening the path for myself and Team CFVY to drop out. _Something I should look into later… or get Ozpin to do it. I like that option._

"Not that it's not important or anything but… Shouldn't you help your friend? 'Cause Sid-sensei isn't a pushover." Black Star commented, snapping me back into focus. Yatsuhashi was breathing heavily, though I'm pretty sure a good deal of that was because he wouldn't stop screaming, while Sid stood a fair distance away, now dual-wielding tombstones. _Immense strength indeed… I suppose it makes sense though. As a human, he had to have been incredibly strong in the first place. As a zombie, though, his body has none of the limitations it normally does, giving him quite a boost. Yatsuhashi might be outclassed solo, but then again…_

I smirked as I watched the now-recovered Team CFVY step up to stand beside their teammate, Velvet worriedly looking him while Fox readied his blades. Coco leaned on leg and peered over her sunglasses at the blue zombie, who merely adopted a more serious look on his face as he hefted the two tombstones, one his own, the other one it looked like he had picked up. "I think you'll find that these folks aren't your average people. Team CFVY!" I called out, getting Velvet to look over at me while the others kept their eyes on Sid. "In the absence of Professor Oobleck, I suppose I should give you orders. For right now, take down that zombie before he hinders our investigation of the area."

Velvet immediately turned back to the team's designated opponent, taking a kickboxing stance while Yatsuhashi straightened, sword held at the ready. Fox crouched slightly, and Coco stood up straighter while Sid tensed, prepared. I directed my voice to the meisters and demon weapons behind me. "Alright kids. School's in session. Pay attention, you might learn something."

**-Cue Soul Eater Battle Resonance: Hook Cemetery-**

As if Orion's words were some sort of signal, Sid _moved_, flinging the tombstone that belonged to someone else at the assembled group. Velvet and Fox dodged it, the bunny-faunus jumping to the left while Fox rushed forward, ducking underneath the large projectile. Yatsuhashi brought down his sword on it, smashing it into gravel while Coco had jumped back a distance, giving herself a better tactical view of the fight for the moment. Orion spoke up as Fox rushed in, blades slashing as Sid was forced to swing his tombstone in a defensive manner, the zombie unwilling to let himself be sliced apart. "Oi, Coco." A slight tilt of her head was the only indication that she heard the errant bookstore employee. "I'd advise against using your gun. No telling if we might need it later, and ammo's not exactly going to be an easily solved problem while we're here."

A barely audible hiss of frustration was the only sign that she would bother to listen to him before she started walking forward, Fox having dodged back to let Yatsuhashi step in with a powerful swing that Sid had jumped away from, landing on a nearby tombstone before launching himself into the air. As the zombie adjusted his grip on his improvised weapon, Orion narrowed his eyes at the zombie, judging the power that was being manifested. "My, that's a decent amount of energy he's gathering." The young man then shrugged as he felt another person moving. "Course, it only works if he _hits_, ya know."

"Alright kids, let's see you take on this! _**Living-**_" Sid began to lecture Team CFVY before he was suddenly interrupted from a powerful kick from above him. He was smashed through the air, and as he tumbled he caught sight of the bunny-girl who had a determined expression on her face. _She got behind me when her teammates distracted me with their heavy offense!_ He slammed into the ground, disturbing a fair amount of dust. Mentally shaking himself, the experienced assassin kipped up to his feet, swinging his tombstone forward to displace some of the dust and give him a better view.

"Hello, corpse-man." At those words Sid spun, barely catching the impact of a _handbag_ against his tombstone. That wasn't the issue here though; the issue was the tombstone _cracked_ when the girl _smaller than him_ hit it with her _handbag_. _What kind of monstrous strength does she have?_ He idly wondered as he shoved her away and then forced her to dodge back with another heavy sweep of his weapon. Sid swung it onto his back and jumped forward and up at her, bringing the stone down for a heavy blow, only to be blocked by Yatsuhashi's reappearance in the fight, catching the stone on his sword. Sid hung in the air for a moment before swinging his lower body forward to plant both feet on his opponent's massive blade. Another moment and he was flying away from the man, pushing off the blade to get some distance. _Whoever these kids are, their teamwork is extremely well-coordinated._

Orion frowned as he watched the battle, noting how the Team were stacking against the powerful zombie. "Maka, Black Star." His tense words garnered their immediate attention, and he gestured at the fight. "What's up with that thing? He's _way_ too intelligent to be a normal zombie, and far too skilled to be a normal person before his death in the first place."

Black Star tilted his head. "And how the hell can you tell that? You don't even _look_ like a fighter, unlike those four."

Orion just gave him a blank stare. "First of all, I _can_ fight, however my role in our little mission is that of advisor, and I'm not going to interfere if I don't need to, especially when I'm honest enough to admit that they're still better than me on an individual basis, let alone as a team. Second of all, that zombie's movements are far too fluid to belong to an average civilian, let alone a brain-dead corpse. Finally, if it was just a zombie with a bare amount of training, Team CFVY would've cut him apart by now, that he's holding his own so well with such an odd choice of weapon speaks _volumes_ for just how strong he is." He blinked at the stares of incredulity he was getting from four students of WMA. "What? I'm good at putting stuff together."

Maka blinked a few more times. "Okay… Anyway, the zombie used to be our teacher at school, Sid Barret. He was recently killed and we've been sent out to deal with him however we can, and find out who brought him back to life."

Orion processed that information for a moment. "Suppose it'd be too much to hope for him to just be an academics only teacher and that your school _doesn't _happen to be one designed to train kids on how to wield hyper-lethal weaponry?"

The scythe in Maka's hands just stared at him, along with Tsubaki. "And the fact that we're _living weapons_ isn't a tip-off?"

Orion shrugged. "Meh, I've heard of weirder shit. So, just how badly off is this situation?"

Black Star spoke up. "Sid's a three-star knife meister, meaning he's one of the best. He also taught me and Tsubaki the Ways of the Assassin, meaning he's mastered those. He's still nothing to my own greatness!" The young man finished with a boisterous laugh.

Orion resisted the urge to facepalm. "Riiight… Miss Maka? Any way you can…" He trailed off. Almost immediately a cry of "_**Maka CHOP!"**_ rang out and Black Star was crouched down holding a sizable welt on his head, Maka stashing a book back from wherever she pulled it from. "Thank you. So, essentially we have a veteran fighter with a grand amount of skill and a body beyond normal limits." A moment passed as Orion and the group standing near him considered what exactly was just said. "Well, _fuck_."

Tsubaki let out a nervous chuckle. "On the bright side, he is hampered by his current weapon of choice and we outnumber him by a fair amount."

Orion turned his head slowly to direct a gaze of absolute neutrality at her. "... _Why_ did you say that?"

"Enough of this!" The zombie roared out as he jumped away from the group-no, team that had appeared out of nowhere and had been fighting him on fair grounds. _No more holding back, the situation has changed far too much!_ "Time for you children to understand just how out of your league you are!"

With those words, he threw his tombstone away from him and drew a stone fashioned in the rough shape of a knife. Almost immediately his stance changed, and Team CFVY felt a certain _pressure _being placed upon them.

_What the hell?_ The leader, Coco, wondered as she stared down her opponent, her teammates arrayed beside her. This wasn't a Semblance, or anything like that. _This man has enough skill that we can literally_ feel _his intent to kill us, simply by his eyes and the manner he holds himself!_

Suddenly the zombie _moved_, sprinting to be in front of her within moments, knife poised to stab at her abdomen. Coco's eyes widened as she realized just fast this man was when not encumbered the tombstone. _Shit, I can't-_

She gasped in pain and stumbled back as Sid lashed out with his improv knife. As she did so, however, Sid took a moment to blink in shock. _No blood? Wait, I didn't even pierce her!_ That was all the time he had, though, as her vengeful teammates countered, Yatsuhashi swinging his massive blade down while Fox moved beside him, ready to jump at his opponent when he dodged. Velvet, meanwhile, moved to inspect her team leader, who was catching her breath and mentally saying thanks to her ancestors who had discovered aura.

Sid dodged the powerful swing that bit into the ground, and hastily deflected a blow from Fox before booting him in the chest, sending him to crash into Yatsuhashi. Noticing he now had a moment, Sid jumped backward again, easily burrowing into the ground.

Orion hissed under his breath as he watched. "Damn, that would be bad. He's too quick for Yatsuhashi now, and he's underground which makes him very difficult to track."

Maka just watched with concern. "Is that girl going to be ok? She just got stabbed by Sid-sensei!"

Orion waved her off, concentrating on something. "All of us are tougher than we look, and we have a couple of mutual tricks. Notice the lack of blood?"

Black Star spoke up, eyes narrowed and strangely serious. "That was a clean hit, it should have left a deep wound on her. There's not even a mark on her clothes. What kind of witch…"

Orion held up a hand. "It's not magic, and we can all do it. I'll explain later. VELVET!" He called out, grabbing the attention of the bunny faunus while Team CFVY regrouped. "Listen for him!"

Black Star scoffed as the young woman nodded affirmatively and seemed to concentrate. "She's not that big a person, way too timid, there's no way bunny girl can hear a master assassin like Si-" His monolog halted abruptly as he noticed something. "Wait, did her ears just twitch? What the hell?"

"Yeah, those are real." Orion commented off-handedly while he seemed to be concentrating again, before clicking his tongue. "Ah, hell, guess she's not the only one with good ears…"

"Orion!" She called out, a bit frantic. "He's after you now!"

"Yeah, I noticed!" He bit back before whirling barely managing to block a swing from the zombie man as he burst from the ground, the man with a pulse now having a gauntlet covering his arm. His left holding back the swing his right darted out, a blade extending from a second gauntlet covering his arm and forcing the zombie man to leap away and burrow back into the ground. "Tch, didn't think I'd get him anyway…"

"You've got pretty good instincts, noticing Teach like that." The scythe in Moka's hands commented warily, appraising him again with a different light.

"Sure, let's go with that for now." Orion casually replied, focusing intently. "Oi, big man."

Black Star twitched at that before puffing out his chest. "So, you acknowledge my greatness? Can't say I'm surprised, for even I am sometimes in-"

"Kid, I don't care." Orion cut him off, getting Black Star's eyes to twitch in a crazed manner. "But, I figure, since you talk so big, someone as great as you could easily catch this guy right?"

Black Star glared at him for a moment, before he spoke, tone decidedly neutral. "Tsubaki. Chain scythe mode. Trap Star."

"Right." The young woman affirmed, lighting up like a Christmas tree before shifting and landing in Black Star's hands. Immediately his right hand let go and formed a symbol in front of his face as the chain began slowly extending and surrounding the trio in the form of a star.

"Right then, now to make sure he'll come after us, if he goes after the other group this whole setup will be ruined…." Orion muttered, before raising his voice. "Man, is that all you can do? I expected better from a man like you once were! Guess you lost some things when you died, you **maggot ridden **_**brain dead UGLY CORPSE!**_"

A pause, and then almost immediately Sid launched from the ground with a roar of rage. In turn however Black Star appeared in front of him, standing between him and Orion. "Your angry soul is so _loud,_ sensei. Being dead has made you sloppy, time to send you back to the grave. _**Trap star ACTIVATE!**_"

Within a heartbeat, the Tsubaki's chains _moved_, surrounding and immediately constricting the zombie with a near unbreakable metal. Orion had dropped to the ground the second he had felt Sid approaching, and had also dragged Maka and Soul down with him, avoiding any of them getting entangled as well.

**-End music-**

"That went well." I stated as I rose to my feet, cracking my neck from side to side, _Caestus_ having retracted into the sleeves of my jacket. "No one hurt, helped out the locals with capturing a mad zombie NO YATSUHASHI!" I spun and stepped between Yatsuhashi and the zombie, the former of whom had his blade raised as he charged.

"But, but… ZOMBIE." The young man cried out, a distinct lack of calm in his manner. I suppressed the twitch I could feel developing in my eye. _Jesus he breaks character hardcore when it comes to the undead. That's _awesome_, really, _especially _with the given circumstances..._

"If they wanted to kill him they already would have done so! Go talk to Velvet or someone, don't think about it." Cue the rabbit faunus having come up and poking him in the side, garnering his attention. He lowered his sword as he turned to face her, demeanor relaxing somewhat as Velvet's fussing brought a sense of normality to the young man.

"Ok, that's a crisis diverted... " I muttered, turning away from them as Coco approached, a wary Fox hovering near her. "Coco, you good?"

"Yeah, he didn't get past my Aura. Took a decent chunk out though, even with a small tool like that he hits damn hard." Coco asserted, coming to a stop in front of Sid and the others, glaring down at him. "He's lucky Aura just barely goes over clothes, otherwise I'd have ripped him a new asshole for fucking up my shirt."

I sweatdropped. "Oh-kay then…." I turned to look at Maka. "So, explain to me why we're not taking his head off? Cause, he just tried to do so to us, and there's lots of support for the idea of killing him…"

Maka physically shook herself, having been staring unabashedly at the admittedly _odd_ behavior previously expressed by Team CFVY. "Right, sorry. Our mission was to subdue Sid-sensei and find out from him who exactly resurrected him."

I nodded distractedly as I looked at the zombie in question. "I suppose the phrase 'dead men tell no tales' doesn't really apply when one considers necromancy…"

Everyone blinked at me, and I waved them off, moving forward to intently study Sid. "I'm going to guess that you're not going to be very cooperative, are you?"

Sid glared back at me. "I don't sell out other people; that's the type of man I was."

"Riiiight. Or, you could kindly tell us what we want to know. Otherwise, we're going to have to stop being civil, and then I let Coco castrate you. With her weapon." At my words, Coco donned an evil grin and triggered her weapon to unfold from her handbag. In a few moments Sid was staring down the barrel of Coco's gatling gun. "Not much of a precision weapon, so it'll probably be a botched job, but you're dead anyway right?"

I didn't think a man with blue skin could go dead white in horror, but there we go. Actually, all of the men aside from me were deathly pale as they inched away from the maniacal grin Coco had donned. _Yatsuhashi_ even was. "I'll talk! I'll tell you everything I know!"

"Good. And if you try to lie, I'll know. It's one of my abilities." Not strictly true. I could take an educated guess as to if he was lying by _feeling_ his soul, but knowing for sure? Not really. Aside from the fact that I already knew who had turned him into a zombie. It had taken me throughout the entire damn fight, but I had finally remembered why all of this seemed familiar. This was also why I had dragged Maka to the ground with me: funny as it was to watch, we didn't have time for the drama of Black Star "accidentally" tying up Maka with Sid. I also didn't feel like getting tied up myself, not my thing. Apparently it's Neo's though… _Gah, bad brain! Focus! Deal with ice cream girl later!_

Tuning out the conversation/interrogation/Sid spilling his guts out, crying tears of fear while being stared down by a currently sadistic Coco, I _reached out_ with my senses. _Hmm…_ Aside from the souls of the others (Black Star's was surprisingly strong for a kid _though thinking back, considering he use his soul as a weapon without Tsubaki, not that surprising_) there wasn't anyone else in the graveyard. No side of the distortion, either, which was quite unfortunate, as it meant we'd have to scrounge some other way home. _Isn't Shinigami bro in an alternate dimension? Eh, he's a god, he'll probably have something…_ I turned my attention back to the winding down interrogation, only to mentally freeze in shock as my senses more accurately took in Sid.

_Two souls? What the actual fuck?_

I approached the chained up zombie warily, who seemed to be more pre-occupied with Maka's questions (Coco had put away her weapon and started quietly chatting with her team. _Huh, must've tuned out for a while…_) then the fact that he was chained up. Focusing intently on the zombie man's form, I carefully _scanned _his person, trying to figure out…

"And what would this be?" I drawled out as I snagged a set of keys from the zombie's pocket. Along with the keys though was a leather cord wrapped around some kind of crystal, very carefully tied. I could immediately tell that it wasn't _just_ a crystal though; the damn thing _radiated_ malice and a fair bit of negativity, though under that was another person's soul. _Or at least, part of one…_

Credit where it's due, Sid had an impressive killing intent, even when tied up. "Kid, you better give that back right now, or else…"

Of course, because he was tied up, I treated the killing intent with a grain of salt. It certainly got my attention, and I made a mental note to try and avoid honestly pissing the man off, but currently there wasn't jack shit he could. _Demon weapons are near indestructible, similar to the custom weaponry of Remnant, probably for identical reasons, and he's currently bound by Tsubaki's chain._ "Because I should listen to the man held hostage? While you may have some authority over Maka and Black Star, you certainly don't have any over me or my companions." I bounced the apparent soul shard on my hand. "Speaking of… Hey Maka, you know what this is?"

Maka, who had edged away from Sid's Killing Intent (probably because he was a teacher and wouldn't seriously blast a student with that, he's a trained killer, they're kids, how would that look?) looked over at me and the object I was indicating. "Uh.. No, sorry. Could you give Sid-sensei that back? Stealing is wrong you know."

"You're saying that because of the death glare, not any moral propriety, so I'm ignoring that. Plus, it's not stealing, it's looting. Marked difference." I studiously ignored the death glare leveled at me from now two people (really easy to do when you recognize that one is bound and thus incapable of hurting you and the other is way too loud to catch you off-guard) and turned towards Tsubaki. "You?"

Tsubaki blinked at being addressed, before tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. "I'm not too sure what it is, but I know Shinigami-sama is interested in. I know our substitute teacher has one too." She hummed thoughtfully. "We rarely ever see it in class, but sometimes Black Star and I catch glimpses of it attached to her dog tags when we spar."

_Dog tags? I didn't think anyone in this world had those, at least anyone at DWMA… Wait, she?_ "Substitute?" I asked curiously, even as I slowly untied the crystal from Sid's keys. "How does a combat academy have a substitute teacher?"

"She's a sergeant from the US military on loan to the academy at Shinigami-sama's request." Maka piped up, eager to chip in with her knowledge. "Whenever Sid-sensei had a mission, she'd cover for him. Even when he didn't, she'd still act as an aid for him for class."

_That's new. And not canon Soul Eater… Great, I'm in an alternate universe of Soul Eater. Of course I am, wasn't bad enough to just end up in another dimension _again_, nooo, I just _had _to end up in a _different _variation of the show. _"Interesting…" I mused, finally getting the soul shard free. I put Sid's keys back in his pocket, shoving the shard into my own pocket. "Think I'll hang on to this for now; something about it isn't normal, and I'd like to find out what." I turned my attention to Maka, who had opened her mouth, concern in her eyes. "Relax, I'll give him back the rock whenever we no longer need him tied up."

Maka closed her mouth, considering it. Then she sighed. "Oh fine. It's not like you didn't help us when you… popped out of thin air… Now that I think about it, how'd you do that?"

I waved over Team CFVY and the brotherly pair of Black Star and Soul. "Well, see, that's a bit of a story…"

* * *

"This isn't totally ominous or anything, nooo, perfectly normal and sane." The local fashionista drawled as we assembled in front of a lab. And by lab, I mean legit mad scientist lab, There were _legit stitch marks on the walls._ Like, what the actual fuck?

"Yo zombie man, you could've mentioned that the good doctor is batshit." I commented idly to the bound up blue man, who merely gave me a deadpan look.

"He committed necromancy and brought me back from the dead. What were you expecting, exactly?" He bit out, still quite a bit irritated that I took the soul rock thingy from him. Whatever, I'd give it back… eventually.

"Speaking of, probably should have asked if he had made any more zombies… Before Yatsuhashi has a meltdown. Again." Fox threw out, then flinched as the young man in question developed a haunted look and had his right hand shoot up to clench the hilt of his sword, eyes flicking left and right nervously.

"Zombiessss..." Yatsuhashi hissed out, panicked, slowly relaxing as Velvet immediately stepped up to him and began talking to him softly. I cast a glare at Fox who held up his hands in mock surrender before returning my attention to the local zombie, who had been pondering the question.

"I do not believe that Professor Stein has created any more. However, the man is deranged and anti-social to the extreme, so there is a small possibility of others. I doubt it though, as the man rarely repeats the same experiment." Sid explained calmly, shifting his weight and causing Tsubaki's chain to jingle as he moved.

"That's… encouraging? I think?" I muttered under my breath, still a bit worried. If this was (technically) canon Soul Eater, I wouldn't be worried about the kids. Stein may be batshit crazy, but this was a test set up by Shinigami-sama. He either respects or fears the deity enough so he won't step out of line, regardless of promised threats. However, this isn't canon Soul Eater, and while it seems remarkably similar, I can't be too sure. Sooo… If it seems like he might be going too far, I may have to help out…

_Then again,_ I mused as I discreetly patted a few vials in my jacket, _if he acts like a creeper too much I'll probably hit him out of principle. Certainly would give me the chance to test out these Dust vials I never gave back…_

Velvet's ears twitched, and Black Star's gaze became sharper. The blue-haired male was the one who spoke. "Something's coming."

We all tensed, ready to move. Slowly, we began to to all hear the increased tempo of wheels clicking against uneven tile. The sound became louder and louder…

Only for it to suddenly stop at the door, as there was a slight lip at the bottom, and cause the rolling chair we heard to topple over and spill a man in a lab coat with grey hair to the ground in an inelegant fashion. We all blinked bemusedly and stared as he got back up, muttering under his breath, and began to walk back down the hallway, dragging the chair behind him.

"... He's not really going to do it again?" Coco asked in disbelief as we watched the man disappear back into the darkness

"Uhm, shouldn't someone stop him?" Soul commented idly, as everyone else just stared. Yatsuhashi even quit his panicking at the… oddness of the situation.

"But… We just met him, isn't that rude?" Maka piped up.

"I'd like to see what happens next." Black Star commented, bemusement present on his face.

"Yeah, so would I." Tsubaki agreed cheerfully.

**((... Ok, nope. Was going to be nice to you Soul Eater fans out there and work some of the original dialogue in… But I don't have the patience to rewatch the same fucking episode hundreds of times to do so, and there is no transcript of anything past the 2nd episode. Sooo… Fuck it, making shit up now. If you wanna bitch, don't even bother.))**

"I'm with the kids, this has the potential to be amusing." I chimed in, moving to lean against the pillar next to the gate.

We all watched as Stein's chair began to roll down the hallway before hitting again and spilling him to the ground. He stared up at us, eyes neutral.

"Was there something I could help you kids with?" He asked, apparently unconcerned with being upside down. At that point I tuned out the ensuing conversation; it essentially boiled down to Stein demonstrating his very proficient skill in seeing souls, and then analyzing everyone there. And while I probably should be paying attention… If I put enough effort into it, I could do something quite similar. Hell, I passively did the same thing to a lesser degree, only obviously mine was touch-based over sight (or at least, that's how my mind translated the information). Oh, and confirmation that Stein is batshit. Brilliant, but batshit loco. And also highly skilled, as he effectively blocked and countered Black Star's attack. From his chair. With one hand. _We are _so _out of our league here…_

"As for you, young man… Your soul is quite interesting. Like these other four, it's quite powerful, and coats you like a shell. Yours is a bit unstable, however, and rather passive." My eyes snapped up to lock onto Stein's. Suddenly everything shifted out of focus, leaving only darkness, Stein, and myself. The area around Stein was soon after swamped by yellow light that crackled like electricity, while I was surrounded by an orange sea that constantly spun around me. "You seem to have quite the interesting ability as well. However, you are damaged somewhat, changed in an odd way. I wonder what caused that?"

"At least I'm sane old man." I snapped back, annoyed. "I can tell how distorted your soul is, far beyond even natural limits. You experimented not only on your body, but on your very sense of self. I'm surprised you can still function; you're full of power and quite versatile, but that's a pretty damn steep trade-off for something like sanity and sense of self." The world shifted back into view, the only sign of anything untoward happening between us being a few wisps of orange Aura fading from my arms and a light crackle of yellow in Stein's eyes, unseen by any aside from me. "Oi, kiddies, aren't you supposed to be stopping him?"

At my words, the Meisters and Weapons seemed to jolt into action. Soul shifted into his scythe form and with him in hand Maka charged at Stein. What followed was a complete physical dissection from a man on a chair. Which was depressing to watch, especially when he headbutted Black Star in the face. Without looking. Stein babbled for a moment about Maka's parents before rushing her and slamming his palm into Soul as she brought him up to block his attack. I narrowed my eyes however as a burst of yellow light erupted from his palm and slammed the two back quite a distance. What was interesting was what I _felt._

_Damn, I forgot he could do that. The ability to strike someone with his soul's wavelength… without a Weapon. "The Ultimate Meister" indeed…_ I reached up and cracked my neck from side to side. "Oi, Yatsuhashi…" I drawled out to the big man, as he and the rest of Team CFVY had yet to move. He jumped a little at my words, while we all watched Maka begin to have a bit of a mental breakdown. "The mad scientist can make more zombies."

* * *

**-Cue Soul Eater Battle Resonance "Patchwork Lab"-**

"Come on Maka, snap out of it!" Soul almost commanded his meister, worried about her. He could feel his partner's soul wavelength, and it was completely out of whack. "We have to focus if we want to-"

"**ZZZZOOOOOMMMBBBBIIIIEEEZZZZ!"** And with that resounding battle cry Yatsuhashi had entered the battlefield, swinging a powerful overhand blow at Stein, who immediately jumped away. As Yatsuhasi's sword connected with the pavement, it left a fair sized crater in the ground. Stein's eyes narrowed. _Far stronger than I gave him credit, it seems. These foreign souls are quite powerful._ The mad man landed on the ground, staying still for only a moment. Then he blurred forward, appearing in front of the still over-extended panicked young man. _Still, Soul Force should easily-_ Stein's thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

You see, he matched action to thought, slamming a palm into his most recent attacker and unleashing his soul wavelength upon him. Normally, doing so would cause quite a bit of internal damage to an opponent, or at the very least send them flying back with a decent bruise. However, when Yatsuhashi had merely stumbled a step back before bringing his sword back up, Stein's experienced eyes opened wide in surprise. _How-_

Stein spun below a sweep of the green-garbed man's sword, launching another Soul Force palm strike, causing only the young man to stumble again. Stein leapt back a few times, putting distance between himself and this enigma. While he was curious, he wasn't suicidal, and he had seen quite clearly what that sword was capable of. He reached up and began twisting the screw in his neck as he frowned, studying the young man before him who had withstood his blows with little effort. _No, there was an effect._ The young man's soul wavelength was weaker than before, by a noticeable amount. Suddenly Stein threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahahaha! The shape of your souls isn't for show! You are literally defended by your soul wavelength! How intriguing!" His laughter abruptly cut off as his head dropped back down, a manic gleam in his eye. "I must learn more!"

"You'll learn only about my greatness!" Black Star roared from behind him. "How could someone forget about someone as big as me?"

"Easily." Stein drawled, the manic gleam fading from his eyes as the wild child spoke. _How dull…_

"You're not the only one who can attack with soul waves without a weapon!" The blue-haired kid shouted as he dashed forward at maximum speed.

"What?!" Stein spat out, eyes widening in surprise once more.

"_**Black Star Big Wave!"**_

A black zone spilled forth as Black Star slammed his attack into the back of Professor Stein, unleashing his soul wavelength on the mad man. For a moment it seemed to have worked. However, that moment passed, and Black Star jumped away from the man as he straightened up, hand clasping his screw and twisting a few times. "What the… You deflected it?" Black Star muttered as he stared at the unharmed man.

"While surprising that you can do such a thing, it is useless. Remember when I analyzed you all before? I simply matched my wavelength to yours, thus rendering your attack harmless." Stein explained concisely and calmly as he slowly turned to stare down at the arrogant young man. "It seems it would be my turn." Stein blurred forward, only to dodge by a hair's edge as the young man with pure white eyes intervened, blades lashing out at Stein.

"You might be able to render those attacks useless, but you're still made of blood and flesh just like us! A blade will tear into you just as easily as anyone else!" Fox called out, slashing at the air a few times for emphasis.

"Hmm, this is true. I am not knife- or bullet-proof, unfortunately, as I have yet to figure out a way to carry out such a procedure. And the unique way of using your soul wavelength as armor is quite troublesome. However…" Stein dashed forward at Fox, deflecting a slash before slamming into the white-eyed man with _both_ palms. Thunder rang out, and Fox's eyes widened for a moment before he was sent flying back, coughing up a bit of blood.

He coughed again, reeling from the pain. "My Aura! How did you…?"

"As I said, it is a simple matter for me to match my soul wavelength to your own. After doing so, I am able to bypass the soul wavelength surrounding you and touch your skin. When doing that, I return my soul wavelength to normal and use Soul Force on you. While difficult in concept and certainly not easy, it is quite doable for a scientist of my brilliance." As Stein drawled on, he reached up and twisted the screw in his head, the cranking now sounding quite ominous to the gathered young adults.

Coco gritted her teeth. _Rendering their best attacks useless, and so easily bypassing our Aura! What kind of monster is this man? I'm not even sure if Velvet and I stepping in would do any good, and I can't use my weapon; he's too fast, and would be all over me in an instant the second he realized what I was doing. _Shit_, but this is really bad…_

Velvet had her hands up to her mouth, worry clearly present in her eyes. "Fox…"

Soul and Maka had by now recovered (somewhat), but now Maka had frozen aside from shaking uncontrollably. "Maka, what the hell? What's wrong?" Soul yelled out, concern turning into worry.

Maka couldn't stop trembling at the sight before her eyes. "His soul… It's so massive." She spoke haltingly, unable to believe what she saw. Stein's soul was three, maybe four times the size of his body. Even the Team who had joined them didn't have souls that big! "We're completely outclassed… We don't stand a chance…"

Stein finished turning the screw in his head and let his hand drop back to his side. "So many subjects… who will I experiment on first?"

And it was at that point Stein got hit by a chair, wheels first.

**-End Music-**

Everyone blinked in surprise as Stein was suddenly sent flying by the chair, collapsing into a heap a few meters away from where he was standing. All eyes turned to stare at where the chair had originated.

"I'm sorry, but that was just waaay too creepy. Plus, you _just kept _droning on and on…" Orion spoke in a deadpan tone of voice. "Like, do you _ever_ shut up?"

* * *

I rolled my arm, getting accustomed the slight differences in movement brought about by fully equipping Caestus. I also took two steps forward, two steps that now clanked loudly against the ground as each step unfurled one half of Opug over each foot.

Stein meanwhile had gotten to his feet, and looked highly unamused at my intervention. "The passive one. I'm impressed that you managed to hit me at all. How did you get over there without me noticing?"

"Blame yourself, I decided to experiment a bit." I commented, as I rolled my other arm. "Due to my abilities, I'm well aware of where exactly my Aura is at all times. While I have to consciously use it to defend myself in contrast to the instinctive reactions of my companions, this does allow me a certain measure of control that is beyond their own. I simply drew in and compressed my Aura as much as I could, mixing that with your own focus on the blaring souls of the others rather than my own." _Note to self, experiment more with that. Might be able to use it for other purposes..._

"Indeed. That is quite impressive control of one's soul wavelength. While you don't use it to attack like the wild one, you seem at least as skilled." Stein reached up and twisted that damn screw in his head twice. "However, I don't see the point in your intervention. You're still far out of your league."

I shrugged. "Probably. I'd be worried if I wasn't constantly sparring with others out of my league on a regular basis anyway. Besides, there are two reasons why I interfered." I reached into my jacket and pulled out two vials filled with Black dust. I carefully inserted the first one into my right gauntlet.

"Oh? And what reasons would those be?" Stein idly asked as he watched my movements.

"Well for one, to prove that you're not invincible. Something I did just by hitting you, so goal one achieved." I carefully patted the vial in place before nodding in satisfaction, beginning to slot the second vial into my left gauntlet.

"And your second reason?" Stein had slowly shifted into a combat stance, as all around us the others watched with bated breath.

"That would just be that I've decided to break something of yours because you creep me the fuck out." I said with a flat tone of voice, my face expressionless. "Like, dude, really? You passed sociopathic a long time ago and skipped straight into psychotic."

**-Cue "Thor's Hammer" by Ethan Meixsell-**

"Well, then I hope you understand the consequences of your actions!" Stein shouted out as he rushed at me in a blur to the human eye. Fortunately, he was coming straight at me, and the strength of his soul practically broadcasted his intentions. And, you know, the whole "attacking with his soul wavelength" thing is rather noticeable to me. Still, even with all that on my side, I was barely able to bring my gauntlet up to block his palm. A moment later a blast of yellow energy burst from his palm, a lot more visibly than the normal variation of his attack. Stein's expression was hilarious in retrospect.

_Lucky guess on my part._ Stein's attack could harm the Demon Weapons through their souls, and obviously harm people even through their clothes. However, the weaponry we from Remnant craft, while imbued with our souls to a certain degree, are not truly a part of us, in the sense that damage to them can translate as damage to us. Also, they are uniquely durable weapons, more than likely on par at least with the Demon Weapons here. And, following both parts of that argument, they are well-suited for blocking attacks that are metaphysical or supernatural in nature.

This is especially true for my current gear. Caestus and Opug, as I demonstrate time and again, are better suited for armor than for offensive purposes. Hell, they are _gauntlets and greaves_, of course they are! They're designed to let me function in a relatively violent world with more protection to survive the random circumstances that is my life and for whatever people I happen to piss off, not for hunting supernatural beasties.

All of these thoughts were in hindsight, however, as I cast my right hand aside, deflecting his arm and sending him into a slight stumble forward. Shifting my stance, I channeled Aura through my arm and swung, slamming a fist into his torso. Instead of the normal orange hue that signified the use of my Aura, however, my gauntlet was coated in a solid black. This was my biggest edge in this fight: the black Dust vials I inserted into each gauntlet. Black Dust was rather tricky to quite grasp: any and all uses of it revolved around manipulating force to a certain degree. As an example, in the show (the future?) Weiss used it to form a black glyph that drew objects towards it, a gravitational field. I'm not channeling it through a Semblance, or any specific setup of my weapon. In truth, I was just brute-forcing the use of it in my weapon to enhance my blow, at least that was the hope.

A hope proven true. A heartbeat passed, as everyone took in the scene. Me, barely managing to block the man who had been thrashing everyone with casual ease and unleashing a strong counter to him. The man himself, who had had the shock from his soul technique somehow blocked being taken advantage of. Then time resumed its forward march, and Stein was sent flying back, landing in a heap a few yards away. I drew my arm back, assuming a combat stance, breathing heavily. Although all of that took place over a span of maybe two seconds, it felt so much longer. The stress of experimenting with ideas I didn't think would work combined with the knowledge of how utterly outclassed I was and still am extended time massively. Physically I was probably perfectly fine, but mentally? _This is a whole separate thing from anything I've ever done before…_ I noticed movement and refrained from letting out a sigh. "Damn, too much to hope that you wouldn't have gotten back up?"

"While an impressive effort young man, I have been hit far harder by many a Kishin." The mad scientist drawled as he rolled to into a crouch, before straightening up fully, rotating the screw on his neck three times.

"Of course you have…." I muttered, fighting the urge to just hang my shoulders and say 'fuck it'. I shook myself visibly as the man just stared, hands hanging loosely at his side. "Fine then, that just means I just have to keep hitting you!" I shouted as I rushed forward, arms up in a boxing manner (thank you Yang!). I drew back my fist…

… **Oh. Yo. So… Yeah, there was supposed to be this epic fight scene of Stein vs EVERYONE, but uh… my muse kind of said no. Sadly. Which is one reason (along with others that will be mentioned at the end of the chapter) that this chapter took so freaking long. Word to the wise, don't fight your muse. You're not gonna win. So, anyway, we're skipping to the end of the fight scene. Who won? Stein, duh. Did you really think Orion was going to win that? Psh, hell no, Orion was going to get his ass whooped. Everyone there was. Stein is one of the most powerful fighters in Soul Eater, his opponents are **_**teenagers**_**, combat trained yes, talented yes, but Stein is even more talented, is far more intelligent, and has a couple of decades on them. He didn't get through unscathed, but considering the odds, you might as well list this as a curb-stomp battle. Anyway, back to why you're here…**

I panted, arms drooping from sides, as I stared down the mad scientist. All around the courtyard we were scattered. Black Star lay near the building, Tsubaki by his side. He was fairly beat up, but then I'm pretty sure one he broke one of Stein's ribs, though I had more than likely cracked them with my earlier attack. Yatsuhashi and Fox both stood next to me, stood being a relative term. Fox was in no better shape, frame filled with exhaustion. He had been working the hardest: the numerous small cuts across Stein's clothes and body stood testament to his blades handiwork, though unfortunately none of them were deep. Yatsuhashi was leaning on his sword, which was blade down. He was too slow and easy for Stein to read, but he served as an efficient distraction for any of us. Coco was not far away from us, Velvet fretting over her. She had jumped in swinging her handbag at Stein's head, but she got taken down by the man's martial arts skills. Maka and Soul were talking to one another quietly as Stein stood by the gate, twisting that damn screw of his. His other hand was pressed against his torso, where Black Star had hit him.

_Ultimate meister indeed…. Outnumbered 7 to 1, and we still got the shit kicked out of us. Here's hoping we're close enough to canon that Stein is not entirely psych- ok, I can't even _think _that without admitting it's a lie, that we're close enough to canon that he _won't dissect us. _Or Deus Ex Machina maybe? Oh, there we go, last chance and go!_

**-End previous theme, cue Psychedelic Soul Jam-**

Maka had stood up, Soul in hand. Stein watched on curiously as Maka and Soul activated their Soul Resonance, Witch Hunter. I will admit: I was _very_ impressed. Sure, there was no way it actually cut through dimensions (I just had too much fun giving her shit for it), but it is one of the most powerful techniques that exist in this world, with good reason. The raw _power_ radiating from that blade forged between the resonance of two extraordinary souls could be felt by everyone there, and it was even more so clear to me, what with my abilities.

_Damn, no _wonder _those two carved a path through canon. Then again, Soul was able to quell the Black Blood, which woke up _Asura _for god's sake, and Maka pretty much has more raw will-power than anyone short of the top 5 most powerful people of this world. I really shouldn't be surprised_

"_**WITCH HUNTER!" **_The duo roared together as Maka took a single step forward, swinging the scythe in an overhead manner at Stein **(See AN for why this is different from canon)** who caught the blade between his palms. All of us watching held our breath as the clash went on, Stein's glasses cracked from the raw power being exuded from the blade in his hands…

And then he _fucking wrecked_ the attack with the force of his soul, destroying the resonance and sending what was essentially a wave of his Soul Invasion into the link, harming Maka and Soul pretty badly as they were sent flying back.

"OH COME ON!?" I roared at the man, who had straightened up. "WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU MADE OF OLD MAN?!" Legitimate question, honestly, as Stein wasn't exactly against experimenting upon himself, a fact I knew damn well. He ignored me for now, though, and began to slowly walk towards the downed pair. Soul was covering Maka's body, and the rest of us tensed up, ready to try and stop the man, regardless of the cost to ourselves…

* * *

A blinding flash of _blue-purple-red_ ripped into the dark courtyard, less than a breath later two booted feet smashed into Stein's face and knocked the meister back a bare inch.

It did prevent the man from continuing forward, and his newest attacker merely backflipped down to land squarely between him and the student-meister/demon scythe pair.

"Stein, by order of Shinigami-sama, you are to stand down." Claimed the new woman, looking highly unimpressed with the speculative glare she was getting.

"I've heard of you." Stein commented idly, reaching a hand up to tighten his head screw a few more time. "The dead woman… you know Shinigami-sama actually wanted me to take a look at your soul myself?"

"Sergeant Hanson?" Soul spluttered, sagging slightly over the insensible form of his meister.

"Wait, _she's_ your substitute teacher? Where the hell did she come from?" Orion yelped from his position near Fox and Yastuhashi.

Staff Sergeant Fiona Hanson glanced over her shoulder at the unknowns once before returning her attention to the less than sane meister before her. "Your pocket. Now shut up."

"Shutting up."

"Franken Stein, Shinigami-sama has ordered you to return."

"And if I don't believe you are speaking for him?" The stitched up man questioned blandly, tilting so his glasses reflected the minor amount of light they still had to conceal his eyes.

Fiona gave him a tight smile. "Then I have been allowed the use of my assassination skills to ensure the students' survival. Which do you think is better? Your skills, or a master assassin's ways?"

"Out of curiosity…"

The dead woman almost _didn't_ dodge the palm-thrust to the sternum, disappearing at the last second possible to a point behind Stein. His flat hand punched a rock through the wall over Soul's head, and Fiona leveled a katana she pulled from nowhere at the base of his neck.

"...I'd say I'd be happy to figure that out."

"SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU MADE OF, AND WHAT IS YOUR MALFUNCTION?"

"Again, SHUT UP!" Barked the ghost of a dead woman. "I'm trying to save your damn hide!"

Stein used the distraction to kick back a booted foot right into Fiona's stomach. She didn't put any effort into preventing her back-slide, instead using what mobility she had to twist herself around. Then she disappeared.

Only to end up exactly opposite of where she had been, without losing a bit of the momentum the meister had imparted on her. Flexing her fingers in almost a blur, she planted her feet then exhaled a grapefruit-sized bullet of water at the back of Stein's head.

Jerking his head downwards ensured he didn't lose his head more than he had, but the water impacted then punched _through_ the walls of his patchworked laboratory.

And then the gunshot rang out. In front of Stein's nose, a decent sized gouge appeared in the pavement. Orion slowly brought his leg back down.

"K, soooo… Can we all agree to go with the military chick now? Before I put one of those through you? I highly doubt you're bulletproof."

"...kid, if you could've done that before… why the hell didn't you?" Fiona frowned thoughtfully, recalling the katana that disappeared and reappeared at will to her hand just to knock the flat of the blade against her right shoulder a few times. "Furthermore… seriously Stein? Did you have to go so far overboard? Are you sane again yet?"

Stein considered it, drawing a hand through his ragged hair once.

"In my defense lady, I was a bit distracted by the badass psychopath who wanted to dissect me. Also, conservation of ammo. Until you showed up, I didn't have a guarantee of getting a reload anytime soon. And 'sane again'? Unless he's got split personality or something, how can he revert back to being sane?"

"I'll give you the ammo conservation point. It's a good one. But why do you only have few shots? No extra bullets? Even green grunts are given spare ammo."

"I. Am not. A fighter. Not normally. I shouldn't be ending up in shit like this, this is EXACTLY why I refused to become a fucking Huntsman, and what happens? BULLSHIT HAPPENS. I hate my luck sooo much… Also, I'm going to throw something at Ozpin. Maybe his visitor chair?"

Narrowing her eyes at the young man, the ghost of a long-dead woman snorted. "If it happens enough for you to hate your damn luck, take note and CARRY EXTRAS FOR WHEN SHIT GOES SOUTH!"

With a huff, the soldier side-eyed the queerly silent insane mister.

"Stein?" Fiona reached out with the tip of her sword to jab in the man's direction. "I have a bit of sparkly soul-rock your allowed to brutalize in any way you wish if you'd just calm down."

"...I am surrounded by insane asylum escapees…"

"...speaking of. YOU! Give me back my damn soul."

"GAH! What? What the fuck? I don't have your damn soul, I'm not a necromancer or some shit! How the hell would I have your soul?"

Sid snorted from where he had been abandoned near the gates. "What do you think you stole from me?"

"Up yours Zombie man, it's called loot." A heartbeat passed to process the words. "Wait, the thing that gave off waves of aggression and negativity that's pretty much most likely belonging to a demon?"

"-I am not a demon, just… slightly demonic…" Fiona coughed awkwardly, darting a glance to the DWMA students still conscious, then cleared her throat and held out a demanding hand. "Anyways, yes. A spire of crystalized soul which I gave to Sid so I could teleport to his side if he needed it. How do you think I got here?"

"Lady, you could have fallen from the damn sky, as much as I know about how you got here. The fact that there are demonic traces IN YOUR PHYSICAL SOUL, which side note what the actual fuck, is quite worrying." Orion dug a hand in his pocket before pulling out the stone. Held in his fist. That was STILL radiating a black aura, due to a fair amount of Orion's own Aura being channeled into it. "Oh… Wait. Fuck. Maybe I should have stopped channeling Aura through my body BEFORE I grabbed the soul-rock…"

"Partially demonic." Insisted the blonde woman, making a beckoning gesture with her still outstretched hand. "If you can even crack that, I'd be surprised. But do stop it, I don't need to know how tired you are."

"The hell is your soul made of, fucking adamantium or something?" Orion drawled, letting his Aura recede back into his body (aside from the bits he was using to accelerate his own healing). He casually tossed the rock at the woman. "Before I forget, thanks for the save... Sergeant?"

"Staff Sergeant Fiona Hanson, US Army, Active Duty. And no, I'm not a knock-off Wolverine."

"... The hell is Wolverine? Some kind of powerful Beowulf Grimm?" Fox idly commented, reminding everyone else that kids were still present (Orion was a college student, and over 18 anyways).

"No Fox, I'll… explain it later? Wait, how the-? You know what, forget it. While I'd LOVE to know how an apparently dead US soldier is working for the Grim Reaper and how she knows stuff she probably shouldn't, today has been way too long. Right now, I just want to meet up with the leader of this place, find Oobleck, and then sleep. And get a lock on the door that'll keep the psychopath at bay."

"Your Doctor Oobleck ended up falling through Shinigami-sama's mirror. He's with the boss-man." Fiona informed him slowly, looking at him thoughtfully but then casting a look over everyone either sprawled out where Stein had beaten them into the ground or slowly drifting to the little circle of still-active people. "Tsubaki, bring Black Star over here so I can get us to the Death Room in short order."

"Yes, Miss Fiona."

She glanced back at first Orion, then at his fellows she didn't know of. "I have a way to teleport. Anyone get motion sick easily?"

All of Team CFVY made motions indicating negative, while Orion pondered for a moment. "So, by teleport you mean…?"

"The Hiraishin no Jutsu, otherwise known as the Flying Thunder God technique." Admitted Fiona easily enough, keeping a skeptical eye on Orion's expression. "The Yellow Flash of Konohagakure no Sato's signature move?"

"One of, and remind me to ask how the fuck you know that technique. Any chance I can walk?" Orion's expression betrayed nothing, because there was nothing. He was exhausted and had absolutely no fucks to give.

"I never learned the Rasengan, mostly because the chakra I've got is water natured. And no. Because I told Oobleck I'd bring you all back with me. I do not lie."

"Technically not lying if it's about the future?" Orion commented warily as Coco, aided by Velvet, staggered over to the group, standing next to their male teammates.

"...it'll take you about a day to reach the school on your own, and there's the prospect of getting lost, attacked, and or mugged if you pass out." Fiona informed him cheerfully, beckoning the younger students closer to her. "Everyone grab hold of either me or someone next to you."

Tsubaki, easily shouldering her meister's dead weight, staggered tiredly to Coco's other side.

Orion was deep in thought about his options. On the one hand, dealing with tasting purple. Again. On the other hand, a day's walk in an unknown world. This was really close.

Fiona smiled blandly at his continued silence, then Stein grabbed him by the jacket and reached out to plant a hand on her free shoulder. Orion stared at the offending hand before slowly drawing his gaze up to look at Stein. "You son of a-"

* * *

**AN: *gasps for breath* I LIIIIIIIIVVVEEEEE!**

**So… My deepest apologies to my readers and fans, who there are a lot more of you than I thought there would be… I am long behind an update, and I am aware of this. However, due to the aforementioned muse fighting me, increased course load at school, and being jobless for a period of 2 months and only recently getting a new one, I have been how you say, distracted.**

**A LOT has happened since my last update. The end of RWBY Volume 3 (which, I'll tell you right now, I'm changing lots of things, because fuck it, my universe, my rules), everything IN Volume 3 (SO MANY CHARACTERS TO PLAY WITH, we will most definitely see Flynt and Neon at some point because I love them in a non-romantic manner), and of course ideas that popped in my head for the rest of this story (just because I haven't been able to write doesn't mean I didn't want to or that I didn't come up with some good future possibilities). Of course, as some of you may have also noticed, this chapter marks the addition of another SI OC and the help of one my favorite authors and good friends, but we'll get to that.**

**So, I'm slapping a spoiler alert for the rest of this AN for RWBY. Cause that has to be touched upon. Now, while this world of mine had become an AU of RWBY since a few chapters back, I CAN blatantly ignore everything that happened. That isn't going to happen, though. Lots of good things that are usable. Emerald's Semblance, new characters, Cinder's plan, SALEM, and the Four Maidens. On that last bit: THERE IS MAGIC IN RWBY, I AM NOW JUSTIFIED. Granted, it it's highly unlike any other magic I've bothered to mention, but it's there. I need to figure out how to PROPERLY incorporate the maidens into this story… And the organization designed to help them. And their powers, which will be getting an overhaul, much like everyone else's will be. So many characters to integrate, so many little things!**

**Power overhaul. Yeaaah… This might piss off a lot of people, or it might make them excited. Either way, we'll see, I'll detail it for you. Essentially, so far for RWBY, we have Semblances all across the board, and SCHNEE FAMILY SEMBLANCE BULLSHIT. I've been thinking about those, and decided that I can do a LOT with them. Semblances, as of this moment, will not be a unique power that each character can yield. It will be a unique **_**concept **_**that they most closely embrace. For example, in order of our main protagonists, Ruby has Speed, Weiss (Schnee family) has Symbolism, Blake has Shadow, and Yang has Passion. How they have manifested so far are what they are **_**most comfortable **_**with, not their actual limitations as of yet. Next chapter I'll provide a list of what I have nailed down so far for Semblances. And if you can't figure out how much that changes the game… You folks never read One Piece? **

**Ah, yeah, real quick before I get to my co host author… Following that One Piece thing. One of my favorite authors is Xomniac, and I deeply enjoy his current work that he's writing "Bite Me", a One Piece SI fanfic that is very well done. However, the idea of both the concept - based Semblances and a nonspecific deity being the cause of Orion's presence occurred to me before I even read his work. So any of you trying to call my work a copy cat from that… piss off, great minds think alike even if there's no communication. Just wanted to get that out there. But yeah, Xomniac, you are awesome, if love your fics and those of your co-authors in the Cross Brain, and while I am not copying you, I do not claim you are copying anyone, any of you. We just have semi-similar thought processes.**

**Now that that's out of the way… The new OC. Not my OC. Not even my SI. Sergeant Fiona Hanson belongs to author Vixen Tail, who has written epic works such as "Deja Vu no Jutsu", a Naruto SI, and "Russian Roulette", a KHR SI… who I've been bugging for advice and chatting with on multiple topics since last summer. Fiona was planned to be integrated into this fic at some point since last summer. Why? Because reasons. But yeah, she's not there just because, we have lots of plans. Vixy is being kind enough to start collabing with me, which is epic in my opinion, and so we'll probably start trading readers. Which should be fun… Point of fact, say hello, Vixy! Explain to our loyal fans how this all got started. And why no one should ever try to read our conversations, because we TRANSCEND word vomit.**

_**AN#?6 (Vixen Tail): Word vomit is a very good term for it, honestly. What the hell did we go from then to and then back again? I think there were like six-seven-eight-nine topics being discussed at once, a few times. Current count, eight pages of pms on FFNet's inter-messaging system… some of them nearly chapter-sizes in length.**_

_**Hello, everyone. Some of you might have read my works before, some of you probably haven't, and some of you might be following the Pawprint chapters here. Either way, my poor Fiona's getting very extra-terrestrial. Quick explanation for her if you've never read my Deja vu no Jutsu story, Fiona's the manifested Kurama Clan alter ego of my SI/OC Natsumi who was… for the lack of a better term, ripped away and more-or-less spiritually orphaned some time ago. Basically what my SI/OC was before waking up in the Naruto-verse more than a few decades before canon time, plus a few not-quite-ordinary extras.**_

_**Which means she's a spiritual ghost-thing of a thirty-something dead US Sergeant who was KIA, with the memories and lifetime experience of a Konohagakure no Sato jonin kunoichi. To be more specific, my SI/OC ended up as Namikaze Minato's ANBU General after being one of the Leaf's best master assassins, kenjutsu &amp; fuinjutsu mistresses for almost a decade. **_

_**I.E. Fiona has chakra, with an emphasis on Yin/Yang releases to help her be more than just a ghost. In Soul Eater's world. And currently lacking a physical body, though she can BS that using the Yang half of the Kyuubi no Yoko's chakra. Seeing as she's the one that performed the Dead Reaper's Seal in Minato's place at the end of my story, in a bid to not-exist anymore. Apparently, from her mere existence in this, said bid failed epically.**_

_**How she got here, and why and all that, are things you can catch the two-parts of 'When Death Comes Calling…' on my Pawprints story. As well as a little bit of what she's been up to.**_

_**Fiona's leaving my head and taking a vacation in another's. Which is more than just gratuitous character swapping, because Orion's going to help me smooth over the rougher edges of the loose ends I still have yet to address in the continuation fic. As well as a few other threads from my Mesuji-verse that are planned to show up and be explored here and possibly Pawprints later.**_

_**...I got a copy of Neo in exchange. I think I got gypped. Not really even sure where I'd use her. **_

**Don't lie, you're entertained by her presence.**

_**Little bit.**_

**Soooo yeah…. We have a LOT of plans for both of our universes…. And a bunch of others, because why the fuck not. Also, our Neos communicate through us. Sometimes it is worrying.**

_**Well, that too. Neos squared isn't the weirdest thing living in my head.**_

**Point. Whereas Vixy has characters though, I have dungeons of every RPG I've played. And monsters. The characters in my head are fewer, but have to fight for their life more often. Vixy's just play poker. Which should scare you, because ninja and mafia.**

_**And that weird-Flame thing includes a few Mist users. Of which I do have a copy of Murkuro and Viper in there.**_

**Viper at least makes sense, already appearing in your story. Murkuro is confusing. I claim hax and bullshit for Murkuro. Then again, he does canonically possess someone… And yeah, for those of you wondering? Figuring out the balance of all the fandoms is a right BITCH for us. Already we have Soul Eater, Naruto, and RWBY. I really don't want to involve KHR, but we'll probably drag in one KHR SOMEWHERE (probably not Sonya's though) because sadly, Dying Will Flames are pretty close to power of the soul. Then there's ALL OF THE OTHER WORLDS we're going to end up in. Two guarantees for example are Bleach and Final Fantasy Tactics eventually. So there's adding Zanpokto (however it's spelled), Reishi, Reiryoku, etc. and then the hundred or two spells/abilities in Tactics. And I will admit that Tactics is self-gratification for both of us.**

_**Zanpakuto. And Murkuro isn't as bad as Demon Spade. Trust me.**_

…**. You have Demon Spade in your head. I would be worried, except you have other entities who kind of outclass him in your head. Hell, if your Neo is based off of mine, NEO outclasses him, due to wielding a conceptual power of deception.**

_**I also have Shinigami-sama, Uchiha Madara, and Checkerface, in there too. Demon Spade is kind of a lesser worry.**_

**Point. Wait, Checkerface? That's new. Side note readers? This is just ONE of the multiple conversations we have at any given time. Trying to read our actual conversations would probably give you a migraine, confuse the living fuck out of you, or both. Especially because occasionally we (mainly I being a jackass) will mix up the order of replies to conversation messages.**

_**I think I started that…. Sorry.**_

**I do it more often, it's fine. And yeah, the going off on tangents thing happens a lot too, which is admittedly a good quarter to half of all of our conversations… I think we once classified our SIs according to Flame Type because I got bored and asked.**

_**FYI, Orion's a Sunny Rain. Natsumi/Fiona used to be a Sun, but got twisted up near the end…. Not helping am I?**_

**Meh, they'll get over it. Or rather, you guys will get over it. I personally think I'm a Rain/Cloud as an actual person. Vixy…. Is at least part Mist, I swear, you totally are with the shenanigans.**

_**Mist? I'll take your word for it, if my casting couch of mental-commentators are to be believed. **_

**That's exactly why. The couch man. The couch. Side note readers, every character Vixen has written with? They're in her head. On one GIGANTIC couch. I think even the Diablo people are in there?**

_**Yeah. I should probably go back and finish that one off, but it's not like I lost the Naruto-verse characters after Deja vu was over…**_

**FYI readers, in case you were wondering why exactly she hasn't updated AYBABTU… Hermione is kind of an idiot. Yes I'm calling you an idiot, QUIT TRYING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED. **

_**Pathetically, that's exactly why I haven't made any progress with that story. Aside the fact that while I enjoyed the series years ago, I can't read it now without cringing at the very stupid things that went on in the books… not to mention WHAT the hell had possessed some of the characters to do the things they did…**_

***coughRoncoughSHITLOYALTYFROMGRYFFINDORcough* I love Luna though. 5 bucks says she'll know Hermione traveled through time? Because Luna. Also, the errors in placement of classrooms and offices, which I'm just going to blame on the magic of Hogwarts rearranging shit when it gets bored. And probably having wards set up to prevent pregnancy, god I feel sorry for Filch if even half the stories about the broom closets are true…**

**...**_**thanks. Slow going, trying to get the worst all over with before taking a crack at having a mentally!mature Hermione navigate the stupidity and straight up backwardness of some of the Wizarding World.**_

**Quite honestly, I think it's mainly just Britain. Hermione should just kidnap Harry and go to Australia…. Or Japan. Japan has all sorts of stuff they can hide behind. Or hell, go to America. Gun laws. LET'S SEE YOU PROTEGO BULLET, RIDDLER.**

_**Aside the fact I wanted to keep things more or less contained, you realize that since Britain's Wizarding enclave fell for over a year without so much as a peep of outside interference arising due to the mass of murders and inhumane things that went on? I don't actually believe the rest of the Potter-verse is much or any better than what is available in Britain.**_

**What, you don't figure the rest of the world is pretty much ignoring them because they're inbred backward hicks mired by ancient nobility politics who consistently get their asses kicked by A. Dark overlords that would get their skulls kicked in by most other fandoms and B. GOBLINS, who are the lowest of the totem pole in terms of monsters/youkai/whatever you want to call the collective races? Essentially hoping that they'll kill each other off so they'll quit bothering them? Side note, the Patils reacting badly to Harry being Parseltongue is bullshit, snakes are kind of important in India.**

_**One, the Statute of Secrecy. Which, given how many murders/magical monster attacks/incompetent pure-blood idiots thinking mind-wiping is okay, would've failed or at least been badly battered by old Mold-in-Shorts being in charge. That alone would necessitate outside interference. Two, the fact no such thing happened at all? Means either the rest of the world is equally mired in political bullshitters that can't see past the ends of their brown-streaked noses, or they're pulling a Fudge. Three, they (goblins) actually did a whole lot of nothing when old Mold-in-Shorts took over. You'd think a war-like race like the Potter-verse goblins would've been all over that to 're-address' some old grudge or something when it seemed as if their opponent was weak. Lastly, peer pressure. Two girls against however many British students? One might have been Gryffindor, but that's apparently not accounting for much given the entire house turned against their 'golden boy' so easily.**_

**Let a man dream? I feel that this would be so much easier if you WEREN'T using canon HP… Eh. Whatever. Anyway, should probably wrap up this AN with some closing comments, so mind if I take over for the rest while you do other stuff?**

_**Sure? But… you started it this time.**_

**And I will freely admit to it, mainly because you and the rest of the world have written proof. So. Back to the original point… 3.5 pages ago. Remember, this is normal for ONE conversation between us, let alone the 5 or so we have on average… Anyway. Yeah, Vixy and I have all sorts of stuff planned, and not just for Fiona and Orion. But Fiona is the (technically) cat-themed character that Orion will be bringing back. Blair… Unless we can come up with a REALLY GOOD reason, she'll be staying in Soul Eater. Oh yeah, that 3rd person bit at the end? Right before the AN? That's not all me writing. Not my character, after all.**

**Oh shit, almost forgot…. Yes, I know that in canon Maka swung through the ground, but I can't think of any reason why the hell she would, considering she's able to swing the other variations of Soul Resonance around just fine, and swinging through the ground would make it lose some power behind the blow due to the laws of conservation of momentum due to the collision- Anyway, she's swinging an overhead, because if you have a big-ass bladed weapon of fuck you, you're going to try to split your opponent in half, because instinct, and swinging a polearm overhead like that when it's that big is the better move, due to added force from gravity on the downswing. Yes, I know this is anime and it tends to ignore physics, don't care.**

**Now that I've gotten that put in... All sorts of things for you folks to ponder upon. I swear I'll try my damnedest to get this next chapter out within the next two months. As I mentioned before, I've been incredibly busy, but I'll be trying. Also, look out for Vixen's update to Pawprints describing Oobleck's time in SE so far, and of course the reactions of everyone behind the mirror for the episode! Read! Review! Please don't kill me!**

…**. Oh, and I have no idea how to use TVTropes, I just read it. If someone could be awesome and make a page for this fic, that would be great? Especially considering that all of this *gestures expansively* is now technically a part of the Deja Vu Trope Page due to Fiona… And future plans. So yeah. Motivation. There you go.**

… **And I have apparently been warned by Vixy, so I'll make it blatantly clear: the little bit with Shinigami-sama that would end the episode canonically, and everything behind the mirror? Will be in Vixen Tail's "Neko-chan's Pawprints" next update. The one that comes up AFTER this one, time wise. You want to go read that before you get confused.**


	27. Chapter 27

**RRC: I welcome all questions and comments! Except for blatant flaming. Because that's just annoying. As a side note, my comment last chapter to keep the reviews below the number of followers wasn't to discourage you. Was just an idle comment, please do leave reviews! I can't answer inquiries and find if you folks enjoy the fic or not if you don't!**

**Raidentensho: Blair might, for the lulz. Realistically, probably not. I only plan on bringing Fiona back, currently. **

**Oyshik: Bring it. And we won't be seeing any of the rest of the RWBY cast for another two chapters minimum. As for theories… Haven't thought about it.**

**Hikari-san: It mainly depends upon my mood. I also read your review for Pawprints, so I'll comment on that too.**

**NO ONE EXPECTS THE oh wait, wrong fandom. *shrug* It makes sense when you think about it.**

**Eeyup. We've been planning this for a long time. Finally getting around to it.**

**Yeah… Orion's switched "weird shit that happens to him on occasion" to "weird shit that is my life" at this point. He's a bit annoyed with me…**

**Eh, Fiona and Orion met at a time where Orion has essentially run out of patience. So yeah, he's a bit snarkier and more hostile than usual. No worries, he mellows out after some sleep.**

**SHSL Student: *gives cookie* And this is why we don't headdesk without our pillow. Glad you're enjoying so far.**

**Bob-870mt: Yeah…. Stein is just OP hax pls nerf for Soul Eater. I think he's one of the single most powerful humans in it?**

**Shugokage: Glad you enjoyed!**

**Derox-1223: *gives cookie* Also glad you enjoyed! I assure you, there were no "trippy drugs" used in the making of this fic. Despite Orion's thoughts otherwise.**

**Alright, I mentioned that I'd give a list of Semblances this chapter, as defined by new approach to them. So, in relative order:**

**Ruby:Speed**

**Weiss (and EVERY SCHNEE, apparently): Symbolism**

**Blake: Shadow**

**Yang: Passion**

**Jaune: ?**

**Nora: Gamer (Electricity sub)**

**Pyrrha: Attraction**

**Ren: Gamer (? sub)**

**Coco: ?**

**Fox: ?**

**Velvet: Mimicry**

**Yatsuhashi: ?**

**Sun: Monkey King**

**Cinder: ?/Fall Maiden**

**Adam: Charge**

**Neo: Deception**

**Junior: ?**

**Melanie: ?**

**Miltia: SPOILER**

**Ozpin: ?**

**Glynda: ?**

**Oobleck: Speed**

**Qrow: The Reaper**

**Orion: SPOILER**

**Aaaannd… That should do it for now. Anyone marked with questions marks, I still haven't figured out how to classify them. I've already decided Miltia's and Orion's, so they're marked as spoilers instead. I've only marked people Orion has encountered before or are main cast members. And before anyone bitches at me for multiple people having the same Semblance, I'd like to point at the Schnees. So yes, multiple people possessing the same Semblance is possible, they will just approach it in different ways. Sun's Monkey King and Qrow's The Reaper both are concepts based off mythical figures, which will happen a fair bit. I feel justified in this, as the figures themselves tend to embrace a unique concept, so it kind of works? And Ren and Nora do have The Gamer, with their original Semblances as a sub-ability. Why? Because The Gamer is hax, and I feel making those two even more badass. The concept of "Life is a Game" has popped up enough in media anyway that I can use it.**

**That should be it… Onwards!**

**Souls are Variable**

A loud dubstep rendition of "Red like Roses" rang out from my scroll right next to my head, jolting me awake. I mentally slapped myself repeatedly as I reached out for my scroll and turned off the alarm that woke me up. The time was currently 5:30am, half an hour before Stein would start making attempts on my life… Or be allowed to, anyway.

After Sergeant Hanson teleported all of us with the Hiraishin (and WOW wasn't that a hit from nowhere? I'll need to bug her later about THAT) to the Shinigami room, we spent a brief period of time debriefing the students and linking back up with Oobleck. Afterwards, we worked with Shinigami-sama (and damn if that isn't a mouthful) to come up with a possible solution to get Team CFVY, Oobleck, and myself home. Afterwards, I then bribed Stein with a vial of Dust to not attempt to dissect me in my sleep (I had more, and the security of a good night's sleep is rather invaluable). Team CFVY were bunking together, while I was sharing a room with Oobleck.

As Shinigami-sama is a benevolent figure of authority, he was kind enough to provide us rooms to stay in while we pieced together a way home. Thankfully, the rooms were across one another, so we wouldn't have to go far to link up and discuss what to do. Oobleck rolled over in his sleep on the other bed in the room, either not waking up from the alarm or quickly dismissing it and falling back into slumber. If I had to bet money, I'd say the latter, as the man is a professional. And was also responsible for my well-being, which included keeping Stein from dissecting me. Stein was good, no doubt, but I was very confident in Oobleck's ability to deal with him if it came to it.

This morning, once everyone was awake, we'd be sitting down and discussing what we would be doing while staying here. Shinigami-sama had mentioned offhandedly that Sid would be around to partake in those discussions and offer aid, so that would be nice. First, though, shower.

"So, you believe that Professor Stein won't be too much of a hassle for us?" Oobleck asked about an hour later, leaning against the wall as he watched me re-equip Caestus and Opug.

"With all the duties Shinigami-sama will be giving him, plus investigating the soul rock of Sergeant Hanson's and the vial of Dust I gave him? I doubt he'll have too much free time, at least for the first few days. I'm not too worried. Now, let's go brainstorm with your students, Doctor."

So saying I stood up, snagging my jacket from the edge of my bed. Donning it, I followed the speedy doctor out the door and across the hall. He raised a hand to knock on the door, then paused. In a blur of motion he spun to face, expression serious.

"Ah yes. Mr. Orion, Team CFVY as a team are very… close, to one another." He took a quick sip from his thermos. "I would ask that you approach anything you bear witness to in the privacy of their room with open mindedness and utmost discretion, out of respect for them and their bonds."

I blinked, surprised at this uncharacteristic seriousness, then shrugged. "I'm not one to judge people Doctor. Do remember that I openly associate with the Bear Crew."

Oobleck took another sip. "Yes, but there is a difference between open-mindedness of morality and sexuality." With no further words he spun back around and rapped smartly on the door.

Within a few moments it opened a small crack, only to be opened fully by Velvet upon seeing who it was. "Oh! Professor, Orion, please come in!" Cheerfully she beckoned us in, closing the door behind us as we stepped through. I was greeted to a surprising scene.

What the members were up to wasn't surprising. Yatsuhashi sat in meditation on the floor, eyes closed, entire body and expression at peace. Fox was sitting on his bed, playing a game on his scroll, though there was no sound to indicate what he was playing. His eyes did flick up when Oobleck and I entered, but they immediately went back to his game. Coco, immaculately dressed and done up, sat on the edge of her bed, to the right of Yatsuhashi. Velvet moved over to gracefully sit on his left on her bed.

No, what was surprising were the beds. Or rather, bed _singular_, as Team CFVY had apparently shoved all of the beds together to form one gigantic bed. That they all evidently slept in. Together. I raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at Coco, who merely stared at me over the top of her sunglasses, eyebrow raised in turn. After a moment I shrugged and leaned against the wall next to the door. _Not my problem, and if they're happy, more power to them_. Apparently that was the right thing to do, as Coco merely nodded while Velvet rapidly swapped position from where she was to sitting in Yatsuhashi's lap, who didn't make any sign of noticing. Oobleck, apparently accustomed to the behavior, stood off to the side, watching. He coughed once, directing attention to him, Fox presumably pausing his game as he looked up.

"Now that we're all paying attention…" Oobleck drawled, sipping quickly from his coffee (how much coffee does that man _have_ in that thing?), "It is time we plan on what exactly we do now."

I shrugged. "Well, the original mission has been shot to hell. We're in an alternate dimension, meaning that gathering intel on the anomaly in ours has been shot to hell. Plus, the anomaly apparently didn't exist here, or if it did, only briefly. So, scrapping that objective off the list."

Oobleck nodded rapidly. "Indubitably! Thus, we are left to investigating if this world has anything that might help us against the Grimm, as well as securing a means of extraction! We are currently out of contact with our leadership and governmental body, with limited supplies and knowledge of where we are!"

Coco scowled. "Sure, detail all the negative, like this situation is not already bad enough."

I spoke up again. "Well, fortunately, that's the only negatives. On the positives, we're getting a _lot_ of help from the locals in terms of room and board, and Reaper Man is currently investigating an idea of how to get us home."

Our local bunny faunus hesitantly raised a hand. "Reaper Man?"

Oobleck sipped from his coffee mug. "How Mr. Orion refers to the being known as Lord Death, who is technically a god, or at least a very powerful figure of authority in both senses of the term."

Fox tilted his head at me. "And you call him that because…?"

"Because I can, and he hasn't told me not. I think he finds it funny, honestly." I admitted freely. "It's not like people will often talk to him without subservience or fear. Anyway, he's helping, and is the reason why we have nice rooms instead of camping out. What we need to do now is figure out what we should look into while we're here." I turned a bland smile upon all of them. "Fortunately, we did happen to land right in the lap of this world's equivalent to Beacon Academy. Aren't you guys still students anyway?"

I earned a nasty glare from Coco for that remark. "The whole point of coming here was to get _away_ from schoolwork, you asshole."

"Be that as it may Miss Adel, Mr. Orion's idea is an excellent one! Attending these classes have the potential to prove most useful, at the very least for learning more about this world!" The Doctor declared, sipping from his drink. "I myself had indeed planned on attending a few or even helping, as I am a qualified instructor."

Fox gaped at his instructor before pointing furiously at me. "Whoa whoa, what about him? He going to attend with us?"

I snorted. "Yeah, fun fact kiddos, I'm a legal adult and I've graduated school. Civilian school, I'll grant you, but I have no need for schooling like the level you or this place is on. Even if I was to attempt to learn from here, and I'll probably have better results than you due to the nature of my theorized Semblance, I would more than likely act as a temporary teacher's aid due to my age and wide breadth of knowledge." I paused for a second, remembering something. "And I'm technically qualified to do so, as Qrow has me marked as a possible assistant for his classes at Signal. He just hasn't brought me in yet, though he has had me teaching his nieces…"

Coco gaped at me. "That is soooo unfair. You're not even that much older than us."

"I also have a paying job, unlike you. I'm actually getting paid quite a bit for this, and I'm going to make Ozpin give me hazard pay as well." I freely commented, Oobleck nodding in agreement to that idea. "Soooo yeah. While you kiddos go to school, I'm probably going to either wander the town or cooperate with most of the faculty here."

That did get Yatsuhashi's eyes to open. "Most?"

I grimaced. "Stein is… _technically_ a member of this faculty, and I'd prefer to limit my dealings with him as much as I possibly can. Or even better, not even go near him, but I doubt that's going to happen."

Oobleck nodded rapidly. "That is a most excellent idea, however! One that I believe we shall be implementing, for lack of better options. I shall inform Mr. Barrett as soon as he arrives of our new decisions."

Fox and Coco groaned, flopping back on their beds. Velvet meanwhile, tilted her head curiously at me. "Ah, Orion? Earlier when you shot at Stein, you mentioned being able to get a reload? How? From what Maka told us, they don't have Dust rounds."

I nodded at her question. "And you're correct, but my greaves were also designed to fire slug rounds from gunpowder firearms as well after I had to kill a giant plant thing. I'm also more accustomed to the gunpowder variation, so designing my greaves to do so wasn't hard. Coco, you're still kind of SOL on that front." That earned me a 'Oh, come on!' from the young woman. "Still, so long as you stay within the Academy's grounds, I wouldn't worry too much. The most that might happen is a school yard brawl, and the kids here are at best at your level, at worst far lower."

Velvet nodded at that and leaned back into the chest of… I assumed one of her boyfriends, who wrapped his arms around her without a moment's hesitation. "Alright then. I hope no one here will attempt to treat me differently…"

Oobleck shook his head rapidly. "As the school's headmaster is an ancient inhuman being of immense power, I highly doubt anyone will treat you differently. Perhaps they might, if they saw you display Aura, however I will be giving a quick lecture today to the classes on Aura to prevent any misunderstandings that may arise. There might have been an issue if any of the students possessed the ability Lord Death has informed me of called Soul Perception, but the only students to do so are his recently enrolled son and Maka Albarn, who you have already met."

Coco frowned. "Soul Perception? Why does that sound familiar…"

I chuckled, getting her and her team's attention. "It's a self-explanatory technique. That being said, you may have heard mention of experienced Hunstmen being able to sense people's Auras, or those with Semblances suited to do so, such as myself or I'm assuming Fox?" I directed the last part of my statement at the man in question, who nodded sharply. "Anyway, basically the same thing. The ability comes with it's own risks, and here it tends to be used only on a few individuals at a time rather than the broad sensing used by the people in our world, but…"

Coco nodded. "It's just another sense, and a way to understand people easier?"

"Exactly." We all paused for a moment as we heard a knock. As I was next to it, I opened it a little bit to look at Sid. "Oh, hey Sid."

He nodded at me. "Is the young man with a phobia going to attack me?"

I paused for a moment, and then glanced inside the room. Coco and Fox were now sitting on either side of Yatsuhashi, and Velvet was gripping the man's arms to her torso. Oobleck stood in the path of the door, and Yatsuhashi himself had his eyes closed, breathing deeply. I turned back to the zombie.

"Not right away, but I would be quick." I opened the door and allowed him through. The man stepped inside, let his gaze sweep across the scene, and shrugged if off, directing his attention the veteran Huntsman in the room.

"I assume you figured out what you'll be doing?" He questioned calmly.

Oobleck nodded rapidly. "Indeed we have! For the time we are here, Team CFVY will attend lessons in the classroom as I will assist with instruction in whatever capacity you may need, for both of your classes!"

Sid nodded affably. "Your kids are pretty good, so we'll stick them in the EAT class. Maka and Black Star along with their partners both are enrolled in that class as well, so they'll see some familiar faces." The blue skinned meister directed his attention towards me in obvious inquiry.

"I'll act as a teaching assistant for the EAT class when I can. If not, I'll just wander Death City in my spare time." A heartbeat. "I'll only assist Stein if Oobleck, Sergeant Hanson, or yourself are also in the classroom to prevent any… incidents between him and myself."

Sid shrugged. "Not up to me kid-"

"For God's sake, I am 20 years old! People need to quit calling me a kid!" I growled. That got me some looks.

"Wait, I thought you were 18, or 19 at most from what Velvet told us?" Fox queried from the bed.

"I thought I was. Then we had some medical people check me over, Beacon's medical staff specifically. Turns out I'm just a rather young looking 20." I sighed in annoyance. Qrow actually laughed when the med staff told him before I went on the mission. Yang… was probably going to be slightly upset over it.

_Then again, she'll probably be a _lot _more upset over me disappearing after she just confessed to me. Damn I need to figure that out…_

Shelving that as a later issue, I returned my attention to the zombie, who was speaking again.

"Riiiight… Anyway, whoever ends up teaching is up to Shinigami-sama. Bring it up with him." I shrugged at that, so Sid turned his attention back to Oobleck. "Alright doctor, are you ready to teach the classes about your 'Aura' ability?"

Oobleck nodded rapidly. "Indeed I am, and for now Team CFVY and Mr. Orion will accompany me to help demonstrate, as they are all capable of Aura usage, though only myself and Miss Scarlatina have fully unlocked our Semblances."

I blinked at that. "Wait, really? I knew you did Doctor, it looks really close to my roommate's, but what's yours Velvet?"

The named bunny faunus looked up when I spoke her name. "Hmmm? Oh, it allows me to copy the movements of other people. I haven't quite figured out what to name it."

I stared at her. "What."

She shrugged sheepishly. "I'm actually really good at observing people?"

I continued to stare before slowly shaking my head. "If you had red eyes to go with that, I'd call you out on Sharingan hax. As is, that is soooo broken."

* * *

The lecture with the NOT class went pretty well. Team CFVY demonstrated the various uses of Aura, with Oobleck's constant darting around at beyond human speeds, he served as ample evidence of a Semblance. Thankfully, Stein was apparently back at his lab prepping to move what he needed for day-to-day living to here, so he wasn't my problem for the day. When we came to the EAT class and introduced ourselves, however…

"How is he qualified to teach? He looks barely older than the students joining us!" A call rang out from the desks as Oobleck introduced me as a short-term teaching assistant. The student earned a glare from Sid _and_ Fiona for his comment, but before they could tear into him I stepped forward.

"I'm 20 years old brat, and I'm currently being mentored by one of the top Huntsmen of our world. I've also graduated from school and I am legally qualified to help instruct students of combat academies up to a certain level. But let's ignore all that hmm?" I gave him a feral smirk. "Doctor Oobleck's lecture was going to teach all of you about Aura, with demonstrations from Team CFVY. However, I'm up for proving my qualification as an instructor. So, Mr…"

"Rung. Kilik Rung." The meister in question named himself, straightening up in his chair.

"Mr. Rung. Alright. Let's make a deal shall we? We'll have a duel, right here in front of the class. You without your Demon Weapons, me without my own weaponry. If you win, I'll attend classes for you, take notes, even do your assignments for the period of time I'm here."

_That_ got his attention. He leaned forward over his desk to stare down me, a flame of competition in his eye. "And if you win?"

I shrugged. "I'll let Sid and the good Sergeant figure something out. So? Care to see if I'm qualified to instruct you?"

There was not even a moment's hesitation. "Deal."

I beckoned for him, and moved over to Velvet, who was watching worriedly. I casually took off Caestus and handed them to her, before rapidly bending down and taking off Opug, handing it to her as well. "Watch over these for me? This won't take too long."

Velvet blinked at me before nodding firmly. "Good luck!"

I chuckled darkly, turning and casually walking to stand in front of the instructor's desk. "Won't be necessary, but I appreciate the thought, Velvet."

Kilik by now had descended from his desk, standing in front of the first row, a good distance from me. "Don't go backing out now, Mr. 'Student Aid.'"

I graced him with a feral grin as I slipped my hands into my jacket pockets, before shifting my attention to class. "Alright kiddos, pay attention. You're about to get a lesson in street brawling from Orion's school of hard knocks. You might learn something handy for in case you're ever without your Demon Weapons."

With a snort, more harsh than really amused, Fiona kicked the teacher's desk back a few feet. "I'll officiate, if you don't mind."

I inclined my head politely towards her. While normally, I would give her shit, we were both professionals, acting as professionals. Granted, I was being a sadistic asshole about it, but still. "Thank you, Sergeant. On your call?"

"To three good enough?"

"That'll do fine, thank you Sergeant." I rolled my neck from one side to the other, perfectly at ease.

"Then… first to cry uncle loses. One!" Fiona checked to see if both opponents were ready, then shrugged. "Two three."

**-Cue "Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth Neo Arata's Theme-**

Kilik rushed forward in a boxing stance. Very clean, nice footwork, I'll freely admit. I was allowed to judge, considering Yang was one of my normal sparring partners. Which would be a problem for him. The other problem is that there was no way he could ever move fast enough that I couldn't track him, I sparred with _Ruby_ for god's sake. Course, none of that mattered for this first blow. Why? Because I didn't even move as he came in hot and swung a right hook at me.

That came to a dead stop a mere centimeter from my skin, I raised an eyebrow at his expression of disbelief. "Not bad. I've been hit harder, but pretty good for a kid. My turn." I then kneed him in the groin. Lightly, but still enough that he felt it and dropped to the ground.

"Lesson one kiddos! PROTECT YOUR GODDAMN GROIN. Male or female, someone hits you there, you're going to be incapacitated for a minimum of 5 seconds! In heated combat, that will end up with you being very dead!" I roared out to the class, drawing my hands out from my pocket as I took a few steps back away from Kilik. I didn't feel like wasting the energy to block a blow to the groin that he probably would've tried if I had stayed right in front of him like that.

Doctor Oobleck spoke up then. "Also, students, this was an excellent demonstration of Aura's defensive capability! Mr. Orion has a fairly large reserve of Aura, allowing him to block powerful blows!"

A light nudge was applied to Kilik's ribs via a standard issued combat boot. "Hey, you alright? Want me to call it in his favor yet?"

"No!" The dark-skinned meister wheezed out, clambering to his feet. "No, I'm ok. I barely felt that."

"Sure you did." Fiona glanced back at me, then sighed as she backed up again. "Very well, then get up."

"Come on kid, that was barely a love-tap. I've hit harder, hell I've _been hit_ harder by my 15 year old 5'2" female roommate." I refrained from mentioning said roommate can go hypersonic and reach _incredible_ amounts of acceleration, rendering her lack of mass negligible for the purpose of dealing out blows. "I've still got lessons to hand out."

"Bring it on!" He bellowed, rushing forward. I casually dodged his next punch by stepping back, then repeating the process a few more times. I knew I was heading towards the desk and would run into it. I didn't care, I meant to. I had to get creative to dodge blows sometimes against my normal sparring partners, a straight up fight like this? Easy. And humiliating for him, but eh, he was still pretty good for his age. I stepped back one more time and bumped into the desk. Kilik's face lit up as he noticed this and stepped forward with a smug expression on his face, fist cocked back.

"Got you!" He leveled a powerful punch at my face again, this one a fair bit stronger than the last.

Good thing I didn't plan on taking it.

As he swung, I leaned back and essentially limboed under his punch. My hands slammed onto the desk, pushing backwards into a roll over it, my legs just barely missing his chin as they flew up. I missed because he had quickly stepped back, but that was ok, I wasn't planning on that hitting. I rolled over to land on the other side of the desk and grabbed under it.

Using my Aura, about a month and a half ago, I could throw a couch at someone. Aura users in Remnant have a hell of a growth curve though, so I could probably do that unassisted now. Here, with different rules, I did have to apply a fair bit of Aura, but I still pulled it off. Essentially, I flipped the table up, and then catching it in mid-air I threw it at him.

_Damn, I wish I could see his expression…_

"...son of a-" Fiona gave me a very nasty looking grin suddenly. "You know… since next period's tests were in there… not to mention last week's homework, I think you can _assist_ me in sorting that out once your demonstration is over with."

I shrugged, rolling my shoulders a bit. "Eh, I'll take responsibility for it. At least if I'm helping you, Stein can't reach me." I directed my attention to Kilik, who had apparently _hauled ass_ when he saw the desk go airborne. He was back to where he started the fight. "Lesson 2. The environment is your friend. If the environment is not your friend, make it so, or you'll end up without any friends. Dead people don't have those, they have well-wishers."

Fiona coughed once, jerking a thumb backwards to also indicate the very blue-skinned zombie at her back.

"... Aside from very unique exceptions that you cannot count on, dead people don't have those." I amended. "There is almost always something useful in the environment. In buildings? This is especially true."

Kilik just gave me a wide-eyed stare. "YOU THREW A DESK AT ME."

"It was a very nice desk, too." Sighed the dead woman.

"And it was an excellent show of the offensive uses of Aura! Aura can be used to increase the speed or strength of your blows! Mr. Orion's usage of it to strengthen himself temporarily to throw a heavy object is a somewhat uncommon use, but very effective!" The Doctor piped up from behind, sipping from his coffee.

I snorted. "Oh man up, Mr. Rung. Kishin will throw bigger shit at you than a desk. And I know Reaper Man has insurance." I calmly pulled out my Scroll and opened it, browsing through it for something specific. "Sooo, we done yet? Cause while I wouldn't mind kicking the hell out of you all day, very cathartic, I don't actually have all day."

"Well… we also have about fifty tests to suddenly make up if they didn't survive you throwing that desk. So no, you really _don't_ have all day." Fiona offered pleasantly.

Kilik's hands curled into very tight fists, his knuckles turning white. He seemed to be considering it, before letting out a loud yell and rushing forward even faster than the first time, ready to give it his all to bring me down. I sighed.

_How annoying… Well, Plan B._

Maka told me a very interesting story in between capturing Sid and confronting Stein. It was about why she and Soul had to take remedial classes. The part that caught my attention was Soul's reaction to seeing Blair in the bath. Or rather, joining Blair…

-**Flashback no jutsu! (Couldn't resist)-**

"_I call bullshit. There's no way in hell he was weakened from a sudden _nose bleed _upon seeing Blair. That doesn't happen." I accused Maka as we walked._

"_It's really true! Men get really powerful nose bleeds whenever they see perverted stuff like that!" The young scythe meister insisted to me. Soul scowled beside her._

"_As uncool as it is to admit, it's actually a very common reaction. What, that isn't the same in your world?" I just stared, before slowly shaking my head._

"_No. No it is not."_

**-End Flashback no Jutsu!-**

Meandering through my scroll, I brought up an image and set it to full-screen on it. I then flipped it around and held it up so the picture was directly in front of Kilik's face. He immediately came to a dead halt.

The image in question? One of the pictures Neo left on my scroll. With her as naked as the day she was born, in a very provocative position. Fortunately, I timed it well enough so that his face would block anyone else from seeing the picture, so I didn't accidentally harm anyone else.

I counted two seconds, then closed the scroll and took a step to the right. One second later, my meister opponent went _rocketing_ backwards from an incredibly intense nose bleed, smashing into the front row of desks to cries of shock. When the dust cleared, Kilik's face was a bit pale, with blood between his nostrils and lips. His eyes were entirely glazed over, signifying unconsciousness.

"Lesson 3, and I would appreciate it if someone would tell Mr. Rung this when he wakes up. Everything is a weapon. If you don't think something is a weapon, you're not trying hard enough."

Fiona slowly strolled over to her downed student, applying another nudge to his ribcage to ensure he was completely non-responsive. "And… since Mister Rung is down by technical knock-out, Mister Orion wins."

"... I will admit, I didn't think it would actually knock him out. Neo's going to laugh her ass off… In case you were curious kids, that was essentially me weaponizing porn. To be more specific, interdimensional porn." I cheerfully admitted as I wandered back to reclaim my weapons from Velvet. "There are a variety of reasons why I am perfectly ok while Mr. Rung was KOed, but that can be covered in the future. By Stein."

And damn did I feel sorry for kids getting sex ed from _Stein_ of all people.

"Jiraiya-sensei would be so proud…"

**-End Music-**

"Seriously, at some point, we need to talk. I am _immensely_ curious as to how the hell you've spent time in _Naruto_, let alone here." I called out to Sergeant Hanson as I re-equipped my gear.

"...it's a long story?" Fiona admitted more than a little hesitantly. "Frankly, if you wouldn't mind comparing notes with me about… _that_ world, I might tell you."

"So long as you don't ask for my life story. I don't even know that. Stupid random ass nonspecific deities, tossing a guy into a hazard zone without warning and stripping personal memories…" I grumbled lowly after the second sentence. Knowing that quite obviously the good Sergeant had kunoichi training, I had money that she could hear me. Velvet could too, and shot me a worried look, but I mouthed 'later' to her, which seemed to at least temporarily reassure her.

"Hey Orion? Can I get some of those pictures from you later?" Coco asked me curiously from her spot on the wall. I shrugged.

"I'll ask my friend if she'll let me send em to ya when we get back. Only reason I used it here is because I highly doubt he'll remember what exactly he saw."

"Alright then, that's enough!" Sid announced, clapping his hands together to get the class's attention. "Pot of Thunder, Pot of Fire, please bring your meister to the infirmary! The rest of you, pull out yesterday's homework to be collected!"

"Oi, Mister student-aide. Paperwork… and we might want to pry the desk out of the floor."

"Would probably help… Hey Yatsu? Give me a hand?" I called out to the big teen, who nodded and walked over. Each of us grabbing one leg, we pulled in unison and the desk was freed from the floor. "Thanks. Now go stand right next to Velvet again before you do something ill-advised." He nodded at the thanks and then walked back to Velvet, who immediately clung to him before he realized he was near a zombie… Again. "Desk's free, Sergeant!"

"Fantastic." Was her less than enthusiastic response. The dead woman manifested a very large double-edged knife from nowhere, with a leather wrapped hilt and a thick ring serving as the pommel, to pry open one of the lower left hand drawers. "Let's hope most of this survived alright. Otherwise we're going to be rush-writing about forty-five copies of the test out by hand."

I shrugged, walking over and pulling out a few sample tests. "Well… These look alright. Except this one?" I offered the one in question to the dead kunoichi with _very_ odd abilities. The name at the top was Black Star's.

Fiona frowned at the messy hand-writing. "...eh, he has to make it up anyways. No great loss."

"Damn. I…" I paused for a second, looked at the name, thought about it. "... Nevermind. Anyway, let's grab what needs to be graded and go elsewhere to work on it? BECAUSE YOU KIDS DON'T MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS!" The last was a bellow at the students, who had been failing horribly at blatantly eavesdropping on myself and Fiona.

"Deathbucks? I've got a frequent-customer discount there." The dead woman stared hard at some of the frankly appalling handwriting that littered the pages needing correcting. "...I think we're going to need something very strong."

"... Any chance they sell alcohol?"

She blinked at me. "_Death-_Bucks. Think _Star-_Bucks. No, they don't have alcohol. I don't drink, anyways."

"Eh, a guy can dream. They probably have hot chocolate. Wait, if you did drink, would it even do anything to you?" I asked curiously, as I remembered her current state of… existing is a better term here than living.

"...I _can_ drink… it's just… not comfortable for me. Alcohol on the other hand… I highly doubt it would do anything more than pure water does."

"Hey, to be fair, there are worlds where they have figured out how to distill water into alcohol hard enough to knock demigods on their asses."

Fiona gave him a very level look. "I. Don't. Drink. Alcohol. At all."

"... I'm going to just get this out of the way? I live with a guy who's probably the most feared man in the country. And I figured out how to dodge Feminine Fury™. I'm really not intimidated by you."

"...ever try to dodge a genjutsu?"

"Pictures are from an illusion specialist. So… yes, actually." I blandly answered, opening the door for her as we left the room. "Quite a lot, especially because she's very persistent about seducing me."

"You realize that illusions and genjutsu aren't necessarily the same thing, right? Genjutsu, at it's most basic, is merely a chakra construct of additional information taken in by the target supplied by the caster. Actual visual hallucinations are actually more of a master's thing than just amping fear or paranoia." Fiona paused as I shut the door behind us. "Also, my decision to not drink is a personal choice. By implying you're immune to any feminine retribution when I clarified that, you've basically insisted it was one I made due to my gender… which is an illusion right now because I don't even have a physical body. I'm merely female because that's what I'm used to."

"The feminine retribution was more so to discourage the close-minded female students when their brains kick in and realize exactly what I just did." I casually pointed out. "Also, good to know. In that case, maybe? Can you trick a sense that you have no understanding of?"

"Given my… ah, inheritor?" Fiona blinked a few times, a scowl trying to cross her lips for a moment. "...learned to fuck with the senses of a clan of people with swirly red eyes with minimal understanding of what the fuck a genjutsu even was, much less how it was supposed to be applied, I'd say there's a decent chance I might."

"Awesome…" I grumbled, only half sarcastically. "Before I forget, I apologize for being rather short yesterday. It has been a long week. You know how most idiot guys dream of women throwing themselves at them?"

"One word, and you'll feel silly for asking that. Well, a name and a title, actually."

"I remember the proud comment. Anyway, I'm living it. News flash? It sucks. Especially when you're possibly insane, don't quite understand your own emotions for each of them, _and all of the women involved can kick your ass._"

The dead woman smirked, snorted, and then shook her short cropped blonde head. "And now Jiraiya-sensei would declare you a bad example of a man. Man… I miss that perverted old Toad. So basically you're saying that you're a somewhat lucky man when it comes to the attentions of your female friends, just that they more than likely might end up murdering you before you ever figure your own head out?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, pondered for a moment. "Neo's not going to kill me till she sleeps with me at least once, Blake is torn between annoyance and amusement about my existence and is only sexually/physically attracted to me, Mil actually likes me and would probably pout at me if I take too long, Melanie is confusing as fuck, Yang is my roommate and has confessed after tackling me and making out with me, and Coco may or may not be attracted to me. They're more likely to beat my ass then kill me, honestly. Is it sad I take comfort from that?"

Fiona paused just before the great doors that lead out of the Death Weapon Meister Academy. "...did you somehow land in a dating-sim world or something?"

"The world I landed in, at least from the time period I can remember, has more female cast members than male. They are also all ridiculously hot. And skilled. I tend to not care about that and I am brutally honest and appreciative when I make remarks, not looking to get into their pants or anything." I shrugged, careful not to lose any of the paperwork. "Honestly, it's more a matter of pure circumstance that I stumbled into their lives at the point I did, when they are apparently the most depressed about a relationship… Although Coco is more than likely joking when she offers to date me, judging by her team relationship, and Neo's just in the middle of a dry spell."

"Cast members?" Repeated the dead soldier bemusedly. "Mister Orion, if you haven't looked around lately, these story people we once knew just so happen to be both real and _alive._"

"Sid."

"...frankly, I would work as a counter-example as well." She agreed slowly. "My point still mostly stands."

"And I don't view them that way, honestly. I stopped that after the second day. I just phrased it that way to get across why exactly my situation is similar to a dating sim's. I've gotten my ass kicked enough times to know this is real. Which, you know, makes the whole situation worse?" I paused for a moment as a thought occurred to me. "Oh, and Nora might want to sleep with me if I ever catch her attention. Which I have very mixed feelings about…"

"...if I knew a Nora, I would possibly comment. Since I don't…" The ghost of a soldier shrugged. "So… you can apparently guess I was… _attached_ to a world of shinobi, I assume?"

"I'm not stupid, and it's theorized my Semblance is some sort of perception based one. Judging by your comments, I'd assume Naruto, and you somehow learned hiraishin either from Jiraiya, which is highly unlikely as he didn't know it, or from Namikaze as a mutual student of Jiraiya?" I countered.

"...it was a little more complicated than that. I actually _didn't_ live through my time in that world." Fiona ran her right hand through her hair a little bewildered. "I've been dead for almost… thirty-four? I think, years. Subjectively."

I thought about that for a moment. "Then you're not like me, one of those randomly tossed into a world, but one of those reincarnated into another one? How do you spend 34 years dead in another world before ending up in yet _another_ world?"

She paused with a very bitter expression on her face. "A combination of a Kurama clan bastard, a manifestation of said bastard Kurama's kekkai genkai, the Dead Reaper Seal, and a few other more or less minor things. Ten of those years I have no memory of."

".. I would say something, but uh…" I sheepishly coughed. "I.. actually hated canon Naruto, and only read fanfiction as the authors weren't shite, so… I don't actually know who the Kurama clan is? Eh-heh…"

Fiona sighed heavily. "Basically a clan of genjutsu users, who had a bloodline that pulled on their greatest fear and basically made it real if a Kurama was afraid enough."

"... Well, that just confirms the author of Naruto is apparently on crack or something, making _that _an ability." I commented. "Soooo… How much you remember of old Terra Firma?"

"...from my perspective, it was less than a few months ago I died. Or twenty-four years. Depending on how you'd like to count time."

"So I'm assuming you remember your family and a lot of details about the world, if for you only a few months have passed?" I warily asked, carefully looking her over. And, honestly, reading her soul. Expressionless face means nothing to me, I can just _feel_ for her emotions. And then immediately stopping reading, because _demonic presencenegativtyhatredRAGE_ yeah that's bad and useless. Body language it is!

"...I never really got into any anime with a Shinigami-sama in it." The dead soldier admitted, shooting the _grinning sun_ a disgusted look. "I… uh, rather liked a lot of the old-school stuff."

"I liked One Piece." I offered casually. "And I know where we are." I froze as I just realized something. "And who the big bad is. Hey, if you know hiraishin, do you know other sealing? Like, say, privacy, perhaps?"

Fiona came to a stop mid-street. "Erm… there's actually an issue when it comes to me and fuinjutsu. I know the seals, as a matter of fact my… _inheritor_ specialized in security and privacy seals. But… a component of most seal-works is… chakra laced blood in the ink. Or natural chakra that can be drawn from the area. Which… doesn't exist here outside the influence of my crystals."

"Trying to draw energy _anywhere_ in Death City would draw it from Reaper Man anyway, which is useless." I muttered, mind processing everything carefully. "Fuck… Now I get to figure out how to fix this world on a time limit. Great."

"Is it that important?" Fiona asked warily. "Like life-or-death in the next day or two?"

"... For Maka and Soul? Yes. Otherwise, no. But it will become an issue for everyone else very rapidly. And it might become my issue, if things happen in such a way that the path to my world is found." I answered, almost growling in vexation. "Actually, depending on time… Maybe a week, at most? Before Maka and Soul are in danger."

The dead teacher's assistant narrowed her eyes. "...Hold this."

Fiona drew off and handed over her dog tags. I took them cautiously. "Uhmmmmm…"

A flash of _blue-purple-red_, and she was gone.

... _WAIT A MINUTE, SHE LEFT ME WITH THE PAPERWORK?!_

* * *

I sipped from my hot chocolate as I looked over the papers. Fortunately… the homework in question was mathematics. Something I was very good at. And since I needed something to do while Fiona was off… somewhere, I got started on it.

… After I dismissed the notion of setting Black Star's on fire. It'd be an improvement, but Fiona and Sid would probably be a little annoyed.

So, I sat there, grading and sipping hot chocolate, leaving notes on where the students may have made a mistake.

Another overly-bright flash of _blue-purple-red_, and Fiona slapped three spires of her demon-tainted soul crystal on the table. "Give me another few minutes, and I might be able to make you a privacy seal… but… adjusting a written array to a sigil one I can put on one of these is fucking hard."

I blinked at her. "One, for a _ninja technique,_ Minato's Hiraishin is really flashy. Two, coffee?" I indicated the cup sitting in the middle of the table with the pen I borrowed from the work staff here. Nice folk, I mentioned that I was with Fiona and they offered all sorts of help. And made her a cup.

"I can't fix the hiraishin, out of my class. Anyways, Minato was a bit of a show-off when it came to his beloved sempai... and the only version she learned was his original version." Fiona warily eyed both her cup and my own. "...exactly where did you come up with the money to pay for that?"

"Told them that I was new temp staff for DWMA and came down here to help you grade homework. They made your cup when I mentioned meeting you, and said they would charge either you or the academy for mine." I shrugged. "You come here often?"

"...I'm dead, in need of no sleep or food, and a teacher. Who do you think has been grading things in all of Sid's classes so he could take missions from Shinigami-sama?" She sighed, sitting down and gripping an ink brush and some thick paper that just appeared under her fingers. "I'll pay for it, and anything else, when we're ready to leave."

"Huh. I always figured Spirit ended up doing it as the local bitch?" I idly commented. "And cool. I wasn't too worried, I apparently am very good at talking to people. Like I said, if you didn't, they'd bill the academy." I shifted most of my focus back to the homework.

* * *

"...okay, harder than it should've been given how damn well I know this array." Fiona held up her last un-cracked spire of soul crystal, which had six characters delicately carved near the broken off end. "This… will work as a sealing tag set up to prevent sound-waves from traveling outside a designated radius. Doesn't quite work for those that can read-lips, way too small for that. Sorry."

I looked up from the third to last homework to grade. "That you can get any privacy is all is awesome. And anyone close enough to lip read will trip my abilities, even if they know how to hide from Soul Perception. Mainly because that isn't what I actually use. Soooo… Activate?"

She blinked, then tapped the jagged end against the table. "It's working already. We can hear past the limits, but no one can hear us. One-way sound barrier."

"Cool. I'll make it quick. The school nurse is a witch named Medusa, who funnily enough is using the spell to hide from Soul Perception. She experimented with this thing called Black Blood, which from what I can remember is essentially the blood of madness and demonic taint, on her own child, Crona, who's a sword meister with their blood forming Ragnarok, the demon sword. When she figures out it works on more than just Crona when Soul gets injured in a fight on his and Maka's next mission that accidentally ended up with them fighting Crona, she uses the black blood to wake up the First Kishin, Asura, who's currently sealed in his own skin below Death City. With me so far?"

"...the bitch in the infirmary is a witch, who's experimenting on their own child with something nasty, and will possibly use it against my students." Fiona rattled off quickly. "Possibly voiding the whole damn reason Shinigami-sama basically rooted himself to one spot at the same time."

I snorted. "That possibly is wishful thinking. If this goes as canon, Asura will wake up, and then bad things happen. Lots of bad things. Now, I know you want to go gut Medusa like a stuck pig…"

"...I have the skills of a Konohagakure no Sato ANBU captain that specialized in assassination. Want to? No, I'm _going to_ the moment I can get some assurance killing her won't harm the students."

"She possesses a little girl unless killed with Witch Hunter, A, and B, I kind of want to save her kid? I feel real bad for them, they don't deserve that shit, and they can be fixed." I paused a moment. "Well, mentally, anyway. The whole Ragnarok as their blood thing…. Not so much."

Fiona frowned heavily. "You want _Maka_ to kill Medusa using Soul? Orion… I don't think she's up to the point of being able to turn on the adults in her life like that."

"Hell no, this isn't Pokemon or Naruto, kids can't solve this shit. Or at least, I'm not making them." I frowned back at her. "Be smart Fiona, who's the number one meister to come out of DWMA? Who can wield any weapon perfectly?"

"...Stein. You realize that means you're either going to have to bribe him again or tell Shinigami-sama everything, right?"

I shrugged. "If it means solving a lot of suffering before it happens? I don't mind talking to Reaper Man, I'm pretty blase about the whole other world thing. The talking cat listening in on the conversation laying underneath the table, for example, is also pretty blase. Hi Blair."

Fiona blinked at that sudden change in subject, peering under the table they had been working at for a while at said cat in question. "...you… you wouldn't be one of Matatabi's cats, would you?"

The cat blinked at her, before padding over to me and in a burst of smoke swapped to her lady form. I suddenly felt the presence of two soft globes as she leaned on me, but paid them no mind. She spoke up after a moment's thought. "Nyaa… Who's Matatabi?"

The dead lady twitched, taking in Blair's human form. "...the two-tailed beast? Erm… next question. Then would you happen to be signed on to a feline Summoning Contract?"

"Nyaa… I don't let myself be bound by anything. Are you done with the random questions, dead lady?" Blair asked, leaning a bit more heavily on me, probably in an attempt to get me to react to her presence as I had yet to aside from saying hello.

"I'm done. Excuse me." Fiona jerkily got up, wandering away momentarily to the bar and snickering to herself.

I suddenly realized something, as the rest of the bar was staring at me. Or rather… "Blair. Did you remember clothes?"

"Nyaa… Nah, they're way too constricting!" She paused for a moment. "Who are you again?"

"... Yep. Thought so. Anyway, I'm Orion. Bookstore employee from another world." I felt her nodding to that.

"Nyaa…. Sounds fun. So evil witch lady?"

"Let's… Let's give Fiona a moment."

"K!" I returned my attention to completing the grading, paying only minimal attention to the naked cat-woman draped over me. Aside from pressing herself against me, she didn't seem to mind too much. I, obviously, did not mind her doing so, so it worked out. After about a minute, I had finished grading the papers, and Fiona had finally returned.

"Hot chocolate, right?" Asked the dead woman, holding a paper tray with various disposable cups secured. "I've paid, so we're good to go."

"Whelp, time to go kill us a witch." A heartbeat. "Blair, if you're going to help us, put on some clothes."

"Nyaa… Fiiiine."

* * *

We walked back to the DWMA. It wasn't urgent to the point of within the next 10 hours, meaning I wasn't using the damned Hiraishin. Plus, I needed a clear head if we wanted to pull this off. Shortly after arriving, we immediately headed for the Death Room, Blair still in tow as she decided, once I had actually detailed what exactly was going on, to chip and help. Mainly on account of possible harm to her friends, but also because "harming kittens is bad and must be stopped!" apparently. Huh. Well, she was a rather friendly figure in the anime, so her wanting to help wasn't that surprising.

When she first spoke up though, I will admit I was a bit worried. Until I remembered that A. She essentially kicked the hell out of Soul and Maka and the only reason she lost was because Soul tricked her… and she was seriously holding back, and B. She kicked the hell out of a _family of witches_ in her _cat form_. Yeah, when I remembered those little tidbits, any thought of protesting Blair's help kind of died real quick.

We reached the Death Room rather rapidly, which seemed to amuse the old god. "Hmm, what has you all in a rush?"

"Same thing that'll have you in a rush in about five seconds, Reaper Man." I answered back, a bit annoyed. "Fiona, if you could..?"

The dead woman, guessing my favor, quickly set up her brand new privacy barrier. _Scary impressive that she managed to set that up, and a damn good thing she did too._ Lord Death's tone was now even more curious. "Hmmm?"

"Your nurse is a witch." I stated flatly to him. "If we don't deal with her, today, she'll indirectly cause a grievous injury to Soul on his and Maka's next mission, not to mention a whole lot of bad shit in the comings months after that."

Lord Death's expression turned far harsher at my words. "Young man, while I appreciate your offer of aid and am sorry for the circumstances that has put you here, that does not mean I will allow you to level dangerous accusations you know nothing of at my staff. Now if you please, I do have things to do…"

I rolled my eyes. "I know about the Kishin you have sealed under this school and that's why you're bound to this damn city, now can we please go on with the assumption I know what I'm talking about?"

That earned me quite the death glare, and the sheer power that Lord Death exuded convinced that he came by his title of "Death God" quite honestly. "_**Who told you of that?"**_

"Not a who!" I quickly answered back. "A story! A very accurate story, but a story! The good Sergeant can vouch for my source!" I was sarcastic and flippant, not stupid. He's a _god of death_, currently a bit pissed off. Not a fight I was going to win in any way, shape, or form.

"Kind of a blunt instrument, aren't you?" Fiona asked of me tiredly, running a hand over her face. "He's… well, somewhat correct Shinigami-sama. I knew of a story that Natsumi used to navigate her life. It was unerringly correct until she started messing with the components of it, but that same story she used that I knew had once been merely a leisure pursuit of mine in between deployments. She used that story to prevent, interfere, and outright decimate the 'canon big-bad' a few decades before he'd pretty much declare war on their world and _almost win._ It's part of the reason I have such issues with her, because without her and her changes he _very nearly almost destroyed their entire world._ It only worked in that story because of a few very specific things that she prevented. Which, frankly, still might come to be even with her messing around."

"... That name sounds familiar and I will look into it later." I commented after Lord Death's aura of power died down. "Anyway, I _can_ do subtle if I need to. Medusa pisses me off though, because child abuse mixed with human experimentation is _wrong_, and I know I have you to somewhat corroborate my words to make this go quicker."

Blair piped up from next to me. "Less talking, more dealing with the danger to the kittens!"

The old god nodded slowly, his face still set in a harsh expression. "Indeed… This is quite worrisome and must be addressed quickly. Sergeant Hanson, I know you have a bit of dislike for your old profession, but if I asked you…?"

The dead woman hesitated, but brought a fist to her chest and half-bowed to the god of Death. "...command me, then."

"Sadly, just killing her won't work, at least normally killing her." I brought up before the ancient being said any more. "Stein tried it before, and a single bit of her escaped and possessed a child. That then made life even more hellish for everyone until she was finally dealt with a few months later by Maka and Soul's Witch Hunter. She's known as the 'Strongest Witch' for a very good reason."

The Headmaster of DWMA redirected his attention to me. "Aside from being highly unwilling to risk my students against such a foe, Maka and Soul do not have the 99 kishin eggs they must acquire before allowing Soul to consume a Witch's soul and become a Death Scythe."

"No, but then that's a bit unnecessary in this circumstance." I admitted freely. "So long as we can trap her somewhere she can not escape from and then kill her, the risk of possession is a non-issue. Well, at least while all of the people within the trapped area have powerful enough souls to deal with her attempting such a thing. The only real issue then is the possibility of keeping her soul contained somewhere maybe…?"

"...barriers weren't Natsumi's thing." Fiona admitted slowly. "I only have a basic understanding of them from her and Medusa doesn't have the chakra for me to otherwise effect."

One of Lord Death's hands appeared and stroked his apparently invisible beard. "I believe I have an answer to both of those problems. This realm of mine can only be entered or left by my whims, meaning you cannot leave here without my permission. As for storing her soul, we do have specially made containers for just this purpose, as we do make use of Witch souls and occasionally one of my staff deals with a witch without having the necessary souls to turn into a Death Scythe."

"... That explains a lot." I remarked after comparing his words to canon. "Now, how to draw her in here without tipping her off… Sergeant, you're apparently the professional here?"

"...she knows I'm dead and without a body, so the excuse is going to have to be supplied by someone still alive. Shinigami-sama's out for the same reason, he'd have little use for a medical professional to visit. We need a semi-emergency to imply haste without tipping her off we're suspicious to get her here and with only minimal things to murder us with. So someone's going to fake an injury or illness, and that someone is probably you."

"... Why I do get the feeling this is going to suck? Also, you'll need to grab Stein, Spirit, and Oobleck before we do all this." I warily commented.

Fiona's grin was less than pleasant. "I can fetch Sid first, who can probably collect Spirit and Oobleck in the process, and Stein afterwards to get Medusa. So long as either you or Shinigami-sama don't mind holding onto my dog-tags. But since the witch _is_ a medical professional, you need to be experiencing actual symptoms… at least temporarily until she gets within this realm."

"Great… And I don't feel like letting you stab me or letting Blair break any of my bones, so physical harm is out." I slowly went over, Blair waving cheerfully at her name. "Side note, Blair, you mind hiding as a cat near Reaper Man's desk when we do this so we don't tip her off?"

"Sure!" She cheerfully agreed, jumping onto the desk and poofing into cat form mid leap. "I'll just drop below and hide under it when the dead lady leaves!"

Lord Death gave me an appraising gaze. "I assume from how you are speaking, you have an idea of how to fake an illness young man?"

I snorted. "Fake nothing, this is going to suck until I can get myself back under control. I have a variation of Soul Perception unique to myself, that's a bit… powerful, especially after interacting with the various powerful souls I have. It's a touch-based/feeling-based one, instead of sight, so it's a bit more immersive. I've been tuning out most everything since I got here, but if I started tuning into the madness present in your Soul Wavelength?" I sighed. "And just after I reassured Ozpin that I wasn't a sociopath…"

"...this wouldn't happen to be the same sense that made you misstep in the middle of the road earlier, would it?" Fiona asked idly, tipping her head to the side and narrowing her eyes at me. "You _did_ recall I fully warned you I was partially demonic, right?"

"I plead the fifth." I responded, a bit quickly. "Right, enough of this. Sergeant, please go grab your fellow faculty members… and Oobleck, as he's responsible for my well-being. In the meantime, I'm going to be useless for a while. 'Scuse." With that, I took a deep breath, reached for that _sense_ that allowed me to feel others, and tuned out everything but that sense.

And then I collapsed, head held between my hands, a scream ripping from my throat.

* * *

**AN: Cliffhangeeeerrrrr! *ducks behind table* I'm sorry, but I had to! This chapter was getting stupidly long. Actually, I have a whole bunch more written, but it's over 40 pages all together, NOT COUNTING THE RRC AND THIS. So yeah, cutting a chapter in half. Aren't I evil? Key points…**

**Skip between last chapter and this one: Yeah, what happened there was elsewhere. "Neko-chan's Pawprints" by Vixen Tail (who is maybe waving from behind the other metaphorical table where she has been helping me) has what happened there. Essentially, Sergeant Fiona Hanson brought Orion and co. to Lord Death, there was much talking detailing what exactly happened with the whole remedial lesson and informing the powers that be why Orion and co. were there, reuniting with Oobleck, and convincing Stein to not dissect Orion in his sleep. Also, asking Death to provide them a way home. I think that's it? If you want an actual accounting, go read it. It is chapter… fuck, which chapter was it again? …. Hah, so I have been informed that, ironically enough, the chapter covering that is chapter 27 of Pawprints. Yeah, we didn't realize that until now when I'm writing this.**

**CFVY's team dynamic: My headcanon has them as polyamorous with one another. It just does. Admittedly, it's mainly Velvet/Yatsuhashi and Coco/Fox before anything else, but they're all dating each other. Those above pairings are just what happened first and what they lean towards a little bit more than others.**

**Orion's qualifications: Orion was a college student, and has proven multiple times over that he's highly intelligent and capable, as well as somewhat gifted in psychology and teaching. Qrow **_**technically**_ **acts as Orion's mentor teaching him stuff, so he's seen all this. Orion can't teach a class by himself, no, but he's qualified to help. He took the Remnant equivalent of GEDs offscreen, because he figured he's not going through school again if he doesn't have to.**

**Demonstration: Yeah, alternate realities woot! It was mainly to demonstrate that Orion has grown a fair deal from his time in Remnant. And I thought that weaponizing interdimensional porn would be fucking hilarious. It was. It's going to happen again. Vixy (Natsumi actually) inspired it, but I'm going to keep it going. I WILL MAKE YOU PROUD, JIRAIYA.**

**Fiona: Uhm… honestly, pretty much every interaction with Fiona was co-written. She's not my character, and I'm actually really uncomfortable writing her. So, every part of Fiona's paragraphs were Vixy's. Thank you Vixy! Yeah, they're rather laid-back about the whole "being from Earth" thing, but Orion is over it because he lacks memories, and Fiona… Well, uhm… Vixy? Little help on why she was so blase about shit?**

_**Vixen Tail : Fiona's had three-or-so months to mellow out from OMG-I'm-DEAD-...AGAIN and behavioral therapy from a freaking god of death from the ending of my main **_**Naruto** _**story, and since she can't sleep like a normal person she's pretty much stuck on 'too tired for this shit' normally. Hasn't gotten the hang of being dead just yet either.**_

**This is why military stresses sleep people. In other news, this… actually went a lot differently than planned. I wanted to follow canon until Crona and Medusa showed up, but uh… Fiona protested. Loudly. Granted, it worked out better this way (and goes completely **_**epic**_ **next chapter) but yeah. This is what happens when we let our characters have script approval. And when we bounce ideas off each other.**

_**And then when we let your imagination run off with supposedly minor plot points. Or when you decide you can work with a bit of another plot, then realize it does more than you thought so you need to adjust things for that.**_

**Word to the wise people, as the guy who got burned. Research shit. I ended up having to account for a LOT of shit when I actually researched stuff after implementing it. There are comments **_**everywhere**_ **on this document of little notes and discussions as I kept dragging more and more stuff out I should have checked beforehand. This is why Vixy is awesome: the sheer amount of research she does for her fics is **_**insane**_**, but completely necessary and makes everything work out. Although I think she made up how fuinjutsu works?**

_**I had to, there's no canon rules. Or anything besides 'extremely rare skill that can **_**SEAL GODS INTO MASKS**_**. So… I went my own way.**_

**Wait, really? Oh yeah, Uzumaki temple… Yeah, actually, isn't that something else for Natsumi to poke and then watch it explode?**

_**Technically, Naruto's. If I ever get around to plotting out the second generation story for the series. Which is, actually, why you're getting Fiona. Because if I do go into the next generation, I have to pull on both halves of the Kyuubi somehow for bull-shit bunny goddess thing… but Fiona ran away with a half and isn't actually summonable by the Impure World Resurrection thing. **_

**And now I know why even purely English Naruto fics refer to that as Edo Tensei, jesus that's a mouthful… But yeah. Me getting Fiona is a piece of a bunch of things we have planned. Anyway.**

**Blair: Honestly, I will admit it. I love Blair to death. My first anime crush, because Halloween based attractive woman who is NOT a joke? And before you all bitch at me, Blair is actually really powerful. She kicked the hell out of Maka and Soul without trying, the only reason she "died" was because the entire time she was just playing around, and it's not like it'd permanently kill her. She's a **_**cat**_**, they **_**play**_**. And later, she kicked the hell out of a family of witches, **_**in cat form**_**. So yeah. Blair is epic. She just acted as comic relief because… well, **_**cat.**_ **So yeah, she popped up, and wanted to help. So she's helping.**

**Now then. How many of you wonder about the realm of RWBY? Well, for Yang specifically…**

"Hey Uncle Qrow? Have you heard from Orion at all? He didn't come home yesterday."

"Ah, I sent him off to Ozpin. The headmaster had a mission for him."

"Oh, ok, cool. Any idea when he's coming back?"

"Ah, well…"

"Qrow let it slip to me while you were out that they lost contact with him and his team yesterday."

"Ruby! Why would you-"

"**YOU WHAT?!**"

"Oh no…"

**Yeah, Yang's… unhappy. There is much fire and punching and rage happening. Why would Ruby do that? Because she likes Orion as a brother and secretly ships OrionxYang, so felt it necessary to punish Qrow for sending Orion off. So yeah. Uhm… I think that's it for this chapter.**

… **Oh, why does Qrow fear Yang's rage? Because Yang is a woman, and his niece, AND HAS RAGE POWERS. Do the math people.**


	28. Chapter 28

**RRC: I bask in your awe and neverending adoration! Or at the very least, I enjoy reading your comments.**

**Zeldawolfgang: Weirdo setup on FF made your review not really appear… So commenting on it here, sorry! Glad you enjoy!**

**Guest: Eh, long-term planning for collab. Fiona is an SI from elsewhere, someone else's SI entirely. Vixy covered her in the AN last chapter. When we leave the SE world (soon, I promise), she'll pop up less often, mainly doing her own thing.**

**Raidtensho: … Something that won't come up for a long long time. SE isn't my concern, RWBY is. And… Orion doesn't even know she exists. He never watched NOT.**

**Agent A910: *grumbles* Weird? I'll take the epic remark. Orion has read all fanfiction I have UP TO THE DATE of the start of this fic. That is all. **

**Lightsbane: Glad you enjoy?**

**Observer: Justin Law went rogue in the manga, but if I remember correctly a servant of Asura's drove him mad in order to do so.**

**Bob: … depends on my mood. Course, you only get to read this when I update, so your question is answered WHEN YOU READ THIS! *troll-face***

**Hikari-san: Yeah, Orion's life is insane… I find it amusing. Speaking of insane, do remember what just happened.**

**Indeed, yay for Blair. I am admittedly pondering about taking her to… **

**Eh. Orion's human, same as everyone else. He'll have good days and bad. That happened to be a bad day. He's… ok, he was better. But yeah, Orion's fairly laid back when he's not sniping at someone, and pretty genial to anyone who isn't deranged or trying to hurt him, so he'll get along with most everyone.**

**Why do I torture you? Because I'm sadistic. And so is Kaijin. You'll meet her shortly.**

**Orion isn't really a danger. At least, not an active one. So long as you don't attack him, he's fairly harmless. Yeah, he's batshit insane, but he's high-functioning and aware that he's a bit twisted, so it's fine. Ozpin has more worries with the Grimm and actual criminals than Orion, who while yes tends to react with disproportionate force isn't really likely to respond with lethal force unless attacked with such.**

**The lone soul: We shall indeed be returning to RWBY at the end of NEXT chapter. Sorry, need to wrap up a few things.**

**AnerianJames: I'm actually a big fan of Xomniac's work, not just "This Bites!" but also his Worm fics such as Synesthesia. **

**EmiyaXander: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy!**

**KPheonix: *gives cookie, shrugs* Eh, not my best moment, I'll admit. Sorry bout that. **

**Madman's Friend: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy!**

**Bloodline Purger: *gives cookie* Yeaaah…. Things went a bit… off-plan for this arc. No worries, we'll be leaving the end of next chapter.**

**Zachary2: *gives cookie* Glad you enjoy? Except, what is this "planning" you speak of? Cause I really don't do it. Aside from planning certain character backgrounds, I really don't.**

**Wednesday's Jest: *gives cookie, shrugs once more* Fair enough. Can't please them all. Thank for the well wishes though!**

**This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things**

* * *

Within her old profession and then some, Fiona had heard any number of screams. Some from her own lifetime as a member of the military, but the assassin she had been split off of out of fear had caused so much more.

She rather liked Orion when he wasn't being a brat, and she had to set her teeth as the young man screamed. "I'll… be back in a moment, Shinigami-sama."

"Oh… yes. Hurry, please."

Fiona dropped her dog-tags, and more importantly the shard of her soul tagged with one of Minato's hiraishin glyphs, on the ground next to Orion and bolted for the general vicinity Sid was likely in.

Worse come to worse, she'd only just end up either in Stein's reach or right behind Shinigami-sama if she misjudged where her fellow teacher was.

Luckily, Oobleck was currently in the same teacher's lounge the zombified Three Star Meister was when she ran from her dog tags shard's limits into the limits of the shard with Sid. "Um… young Mister Orion is in a fair amount of pain. Said something about a sense he normally didn't use, and then used it. In front of Shinigami-sama."

"Mister Orion possess the ability to be aware of other people's souls, and it's actually a fairly powerful sense. Why would he react in such a manner near Lord Death aside from just his power? Any veteran Huntsman can sense the same, to a lesser degree, and while Lord Death is rather overwhelming at first, I don't think there's anything there that would cause pain." Oobleck still stood bolt upright upon Fiona's words, thermos gripped tightly in his right hand.

Sid got to his feet as well, only slower due to the other teacher's extreme speeds. "...because Shinigami-sama is an old god, his spiritual wavelength is practically _Madness_ itself. Fiona, the Death Room?"

"Yessir."

The zombie's eyes narrowed at her, but gave a short nod. "I'll lead you there, Doctor Oobleck. In case you don't remember the way."

"I would ask that you move at your top speed, and be assured I will easily keep pace." The green-haired man responded, his chair already pushed back into the table and stance set to bolt in the same direction as the zombie man.

"Fiona?"

"I am to fetch Stein and a medical professional as well. I'll probably teleport there, don't wait for me."

Neither teacher did, Sid bolting out the room fast enough to slam the door against the wall, Oobleck a step behind only due to unfamiliarity with the building.

Fiona took a stab for the general direction Stein had set himself up, and started running herself before Sid's movements took her outside the range of his shard of her soul. Unfortunately not as lucky that guess to where her other soul shards were, she ended up almost running into Shinigami-sama's desk.

She did at least know which direction the mad meister's lab was from the Death Room and, vaulting a desk with a curious kitty peering up at her then dodging around the old god's bemused form, ran out of her dog-tag's range once more.

Stein's office room was a maddening mix of packed boxes and unpacked medical equipment itself, one of which had her fragment of soul clamped over a bunsen burner.

"There's a witch posing as our head of medical. Shinigami-sama wants her quarantined in the Death Room before we butcher her ass. Since she has fooled most everyone so far, he's calling the hard hitters." Fiona unceremoniously announced flatly the moment the mad meister gave her a sliver of his attention. "Come with me so we can con her somewhere secure."

"...fascinating. Can I have the corpse?"

The kunoichi in her fully understood the request, studying the dead was always a viable way to arm oneself and one's comrades against the enemy. The soldier in her baulked at such an inhumane request, especially one from a mad man. "...you'd have to talk to Shinigami-sama. They plan on storing the soul anyways."

Standing from a rolling chair she was somewhat sure was the same that Orion had hit him with yesterday, the stitched up man nodded absently. "Standard procedure when there isn't a meister-demon weapon pair ready. Who is it?"

"...Medusa."

She couldn't fully see his expression, because his movements caused a glare to fall over his spectacles. "She's in the medical wing, inventorying supplies."

"Ah… you're going to need the crystal to give me range." Fiona hesitantly offered when it seemed as if the scientist was just going to walk out of the room.

Stein, ignoring the heat, plucked the shard of soul out of the clamps holding it to flame. "Come along then, we have a witch to hunt."

* * *

Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck, teacher at Beacon Academy and veteran Huntsman in his own right, matched his newfound zombified comrade in arms step for step as they sprinted through the hallways towards the Death Room to bring aid to his current ward. The zombie man could more than likely keep this pace for extensive periods of time, and honestly to Oobleck it was similar to a light jog. The speeds he could hit were near unreal when he fully tapped into his Semblance, but unfortunately doing so would waste more time than it would save in unfamiliar territory.

Students across the hallway pressed themselves against walls or darting into classrooms/other hallways at Sid's shouting for them to move or get run over by the two determined men. The two exceptions to this were the red-haired immaculately dressed man Oobleck had been introduced to as Spirit and a woman covered in bandages named Mira, Sid's partner. Upon seeing them, and the serious cast upon their features, they had fallen into step behind Oobleck, keeping pace rather impressively with the undead man and the teacher with a speed Semblance.

He was worried. Ozpin had discreetly informed him of Mister Orion's possible psychological flaws, and being overwhelmed with what was apparently raw insanity could _not_ be doing the young man any favors. Mixed with the fact that there were a _lot_ of innocents in the school and this had the potential to end very badly. There were also hints of something else going on; Oobleck prided himself on his observational skills just as much as his knowledge, and so he hadn't missed the byplay between the two dead faculty members seconds before they bolted. This boded ill for both him and Mister Orion.

Finally they slowed as they approached a rather unremarkable door. Sid paused for only a moment to rip it open, revealing the Death Room's entrance of a row of guillotines. One part of Oobleck's mind was intrigued by the entrance to an alternate dimension being as simple as a door; he wondered what else was in play to achieve that.

The rest was focused entirely on the bone-chilling scream erupting from his ward, who lay on the ground in front of Lord Death, head held in his hands. Oobleck was near instantly at the young man's side, tapping into his Semblance to do so, but paused as his hands drew up. What could he do in this situation?

Lord Death greeted him. "Ah, Doctor Oobleck. It seems that Mister Orion has accidentally gained perception of the madness of my Soul Wavelength. This is an unusual reaction however; it is rare to see someone react so badly to it without a spark of madness present in themselves."

Oobleck hesitated. On the one hand, he could inform the old god that Mister Orion was possibly already a bit insane, and thus make the reaction entirely justifiable. Expected, even, if one took into account just how powerful a soul Lord Death had. On the other hand, it wasn't really his place to inform near-strangers of possible mental issues with the young man's psyche, especially when it could be that his perception was just _that sensitive_. To buy time, he shifted his attention to the old god. "This isn't something that happened on accident, is it? Mister Orion is far more cautious than he appears, and I caught an exchange between your faculty members that make me wary of something else at work here."

The ancient being of madness in question nodded. "Indeed. Mister Orion had brought something to my attention, and then had tapped into his ability to perceive other's souls, on purpose. All will be explained shortly."

Sid, Mira, and Spirit were still making tracks towards them, prompting Oobleck to make an inquiry. "How long until the nurse and her supplies get here?"

The dimensionally displaced teacher paid close attention to the answer given by the one who, ostensibly, was the cause for this. Hopefully the nurse would have have a way to deal with this, if they acted as medical staff for a school with this being as Headmaster. "Ah, Sergeant Hanson shall be teleporting in with Stein and Madame Medusa. No supplies should be necessary."

Oobleck winced as, after a brief period of silence, another scream ripped into the air. "Isn't there something we can do in the meantime, Lord Death? Anything to make this easier on him?"

Lord Death's "shoulders" rippled in a manner suggesting a shrug. "Sadly, there is not. Unless you are fairly close to the person who has fallen into madness, or have a method to get past it to the depths of their soul, there is very little that can be done. One of my Death Scythes possesses the ability to calm Madness, but unfortunately she is in Oceania at this moment. It would take her at least a day to get here, and hopefully this situation shall be resolved within that time. I believe I may want to call her back anyway, if not to double check on this young man then perhaps to keep Stein in check. He has been a bit more eccentric than usual."

Oobleck's hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. He had no ability to actually contact another person's soul in the manner suggested, aside from awakening Aura, and Mister Orion's was already awakened. As well, he wasn't particularly close to the young man; the closest person in the immediate area (and world, he admitted in the back of his mind) was Miss Scarlatina, who was at most a decent friend.

At this point the screaming had stopped. Mister Orion was still, relatively, conscious, but instead of screaming his madness he had reduced to unintelligible murmuring and the occasional full body twitch. Oobleck was unsure if this development was positive or not to the situation as a whole.

A flash of _blue-purple-red _heralded the arrival of Sergeant Hanson, along with Professor Stein and an admittedly very attractive blonde woman that was more than likely the aforementioned Nurse Medusa. They appeared at a set of dog tags that Oobleck hadn't quite noticed until now, a short distance from his assigned civilian advisor.

Who had stilled upon the presence of the new arrivals. Orion made no sound, no motion of his body, in complete contrast to anything else that had happened since Oobleck laid eyes on him. After a moment, the young man's body shifted so his eyes were directed at the Nurse, a light in them that suggested a complete lack of reasoning… and an orange glow tinting them.

… That was more than likely a _bad_ sign.

While somewhat uncommon, a few Huntsmen or prospective Huntsmen had various effects on their eyes when using a Semblance. One of the most blatant examples was Yang Xiao Long, who's eyes went progressively scarlet as she tapped into her Semblance more and more. So Oobleck was instantly able to theorize that Mister Orion was, somehow within the depths of his insanity, tapping into his Semblance. _One that he had yet to actually unlock._

… Yes, this was highly unlikely to be anything _but_ a bad sign.

Still, the newly arriven nurse took a single step towards the young man who lay upon the ground, posture relaxed and non-threatening. "It's okay… we're all friends… it's okay here…"

For a moment it seemed to be working a little bit; Mister Orion had slowly sat up, still sitting on his knees, gaze directed towards Medusa, who seemed encouraged by the response. She continued speaking, lowering her center of gravity so it was easier to look the young man in the eye and for him to do the same. "That's it… Nice and easy…"

Oobleck then realized something. That he was hearing a very faint _click-click_ing sound. One indicative of a weapon designed to unfold with stealth in mind. Only two people in the Death Room had a mecha-shift weapon: Himself, and…

Wide eyes darted to Mister Orion's hands, where he could clearly see the metal of the young man's preferred weapons finishing enveloping both of them. Slowly the fingers were closing into a fist.

"Madame Medusa, look out!" At Oobleck's shout, the blonde kind-hearted nurse took a startled step back away from her current patient. That was all that saved her from getting a blade to her stomach.

The young man, moving with more speed and grace than he had displayed at any time before now, had launched an uppercut from his position with enough force to drag him to his feet, blade extended from his gauntlet. Just barely missing the nurse's clothings, Mister Orion stumbled back a bit from the force, not entirely balanced. After stumbling a moment, he stilled, weight perfectly balanced on both of his feet, arms dropped to hang at his sides. His eyes still held the gleam of madness, as well as the signs of somehow tapping into his Semblance. Although they were unfocused, Oobleck had a sick feeling that they were still seeing with perfect clarity of the young man's surroundings, and perhaps even _more_ than that, though if that _more_ was real or illusionary, none could quite say.

Lord Death blandly spoke upon seeing this development. "Oh dear. This has taken a rather negative turn."

And then the young man chuckled, slowly straightening up as he cracked his neck from one side to the other. "I should've expected that… I should have seen you moving… But there's so many songs, so much noise…" Orion, or at least someone who _was_ Orion, stilled. "Why… Why are there so many songs resonating from you? I hear one… And I hear a second, crying to be heard under the false first… But why is there three? Where is the third?"

Oobleck carefully shifted his stance. Sid and the others were getting closer, but they were still a good distance away. He hoped he wouldn't have to intervene, but it seemed it might end up being up to him or Sergeant Hanson, considering Lord Death hadn't moved. The clearly insane young man's eyes constantly darted around, but that eerie orange glow convinced the doctor that he was still aware of everything. Technically.

Madam Medusa brought her hands up placatingly. "Easy there young man. We don't want to hurt you. There isn't any music playing. It's alright. You're safe…"

Mister Orion's eyes locked onto the blond woman's form. "Something there isn't right… I expected the loudness from one, to try and conceal that second one. That second is quite dark. But why is there three? What is different…" His voice fell into incoherent murmurs, as if attempting to truly figure something out. The young man's body swayed from side to side gently as he did so, arms hanging at his side, before he stopped once more. "Maybe…. That could explain it, but would she have done so, I wonder…"

Oobleck watched on, hand close to his thermos, prepared, as Orion began to pace back and forth a few steps, performing textbook military marching movements to always be moving. His strides were long, but very slow.

Suddenly, Oobleck once more heard faint clicking noises. But Orion already had his gauntlets out, all eyes were watching those weapons carefully, and he couldn't see anything from them that was making the noise. So what would- _His greaves_!

Right as the thought occurred to him, Orion spun and fired a slug from his left greave, which he had triggered midstep. Oobleck _blurred_ forward, grabbing Madame Medusa and throwing her as fast as he could. She was still grazed a fair bit on her side, but Oobleck's actions had at least saved her a gaping hole her in her stomach, which is what would have happened due to the lack of Aura in this world and the caliber used by Orion's greaves. At this point also Sid and the others had reached them, the zombie man continuing his rush forward and putting the madman in a hold, the Demon Weapons assuming combat stances in case they would have to resort to extreme measures. The doctor spun, triggering his weapon as he turned his attention to Orion-

Only to pause in shock as full-blown cackling erupted from the young man, despite his current situation. "There's what was off! I didn't actually think you would have done it, but that blood isn't red!"

Oobleck's attention, as well as everyone else's, was directed towards the blood splatter on the ground. The blood wasn't red; it wasn't even the black of dried blood. No, it was as pitch black as the Grimm Oobleck fought, setting off alarm bells in his head. Bad ones.

"_**Vector Arrow!"**_

The doctor dived to the side as he heard the angered scream, turning midroll to watch in shock and a mild amount of horror for his comrades as the blonde nurse unleashed a wave of black arrows connected to her back at the young man and zombie, the once gentle face twisted into a snarl of fury. Sid immediately released the young man and dove away from the attack, his reflexes bringing him out of harm's way in spite of his shock. Orion straightened up, watching apathetically as the arrows rushed towards him.

"Mister Orion!" Oobleck called out to the young man as he finished his diving roll, only to stare as, in spite or maybe because of his current Madness, the young man twisted his body and slipped between the gaps in the attack, the few arrows he couldn't slip past easily weathered by his Aura.

"_**SHINIGAMI CHOP!"**_ Lord Death intervened at that moment, blurring forward and unleashing a powerful karate chop on the false nurse (as obviously a real nurse wouldn't have attacked with lethal intent). The woman's form blurred away to the side, the karate chop missing and instead obliterating the ground along with a black plate pointing in the direction the woman had moved away to that Oobleck had barely gotten a glimpse of.

As Medusa came to a halt near Mister Orion's original position, a flash of _blue-purple-red_ signified the teleportation of Sergeant Hanson to her dog tags, katana swinging to decapitate the exposed witch. The blade bit into the flesh of her neck… and then was stopped cold. Medusa snarled at her attacker. "_**Vector Storm!**_" A multitude of arrows swarmed around the witch, barely missing the dead woman who teleported away to stand near Sid, who had gotten back to his feet in a battle stance.

Everything stilled as all of the occupants of the Death Room readied themselves. Oobleck had shifted his thermos into kanabo form, while Stein shifted from a relaxed stance to a far more serious one, a determined expression on his face. Spirit and Mira both lit up before transforming into weapons that their respective partners accepted, Sid shifting his stance lower while Stein twirled a scythe-form Spirit in one hand. Lord Death simply looked upon Medusa, but the expression on his mask was anything but friendly. Sergeant Hanson readied her katana, while Mister Orion had apparently taken the time to slip some Dust vials into his gauntlets, although Oobleck was unable to tell what type he had. The madman had an annoyed expression.

"What part of 'her blood isn't red' did you people not get?" He grumbled, stance loose and a far cry from his normal one. He held himself at ease, hands at his side, blades extended, swaying back and forth. "Simple things like a slash or stab aren't going to break through that singing blood of hers."

The witch turned a hostile glare upon Oobleck's charge. "And how, exactly, do you know that? How does a madman from another world even break through my Soul Protect so easily?"

Mister Orion's expression shifted to a duller, almost mechanical one. "I know lots of things, and the same way I could predict your earlier attack." He cracked his neck from one side to the other once more, as if adjusting something. It faintly reminded Oobleck of Stein's habit of twisting his screw. "Honestly, acting out of control was a pain. But it was the quickest way to reveal you."

"Medusa Gorgon, while I am impressed at your skill at hiding underneath my eyes and infiltrating my Academy, I am also very vexed and angry over such a thing." Lord Death's tone had changed as much as his mask. Gone was the goofy tone of a teacher, replaced by the the angered growl that hinted at carefully restrained power which very little could match. "I hope you understand that you're going to die here in my Room."

Medusa's expression changed to one of insane glee. "I don't stand a chance against a Great Old One, even with the Black Blood counteracting your Madness and boosting my own power. However, I'm still capable of killing everyone else here, if I can find an opening."

"And how, exactly, do you propose to kill that which is already dead?" Fiona asked of the witch archly, sliding slightly behind the other undead teacher in residence. "There's two here that have already been killed…"

Oobleck tensed up, feeling a chill run down his spine. Enemies who knew they were about to die were the worst to fight. They had no worries, they had no restraint. They had a massive adrenaline rush that accompanies the certainty of death, and they were near unstoppable when fixed upon a goal. The tales and legends of heroes performing impossible deeds with their last breath had an unfortunate basis in reality. And Medusa had just declared her goal: to kill as many of them as she could bring down with her.

"Pumpkin… Pumpkin… Pumpkin…" All eyes shifted towards the noise. A cat wearing a witch's hat was standing on top of Lord Death's desk, staring intently at Medusa. It wasn't an ordinary cat: for one, Oobleck could tell the words were coming from _it._ Secondly, Oobleck's instincts were screaming at him that this cat was anything but normal. "_**Halloween Cannon!"**_

Those instincts were proven correct when a fairly large glowing pumpkin formed in front of the cat before it turned into a high power energy beam that was launched at Medusa. Apparently caught off guard by a _cat_ of all things possessing that much raw power, the witch was struck and sent flying deeper into the Death Room. Oobleck took off running after the witch, weapon held in hand, flame alight.

Medusa Gorgon was going to die today, and he would try his damnedest to make sure no one else went down with her.

**-Cue … I need theme music, VIXY! Ideas? … After consultation, we have gone with "This is Halloween" redone by Marilyn Manson. Which fits THE ENTIRETY OF THE ANIME, but meh. Go with it people.-**

Medusa hissed in anger, similar the animal motif she operated with. To think she was found out by a mere boy! Never mind the fact that he apparently let himself go insane to draw her out, which she admittedly did not ever see coming from anyone. That he was both able to go right through her Soul Protect and easily deal with her attack meant he was far more of a threat then she had expected.

She should have known that these extradimensional visitors would have been an annoyance. While the dead woman that Lord Death had introduced her to was a curiosity, she seemed rather apathetic to her circumstances, perfectly content with simply hanging around and teaching. Following that example, she had figured these new visitors, though more numerous, to do the same. How was she to have known that one of them was somehow in possession of a perception ability beyond any she had ever seen?

And, she noted as she flew through the air, that a second one possessed a high speed technique rivaling her own Vector Plates. The green haired man she had briefly met in passing was heading for her at an incredible pace, an odd club-like weapon in his hand. Suddenly the end of it lit up with a flame before a barrage of fireballs were launched at her airborne position from a single swing. Cursing, she formed a Vector Plate behind her and launched herself sideways, avoiding the attack. The fireballs collided together in empty air, as she had dismissed the plate a moment after she had launched, knowing full well what would happen if the fireballs had hit the plate. She summoned a Vector Arrow to her hand and reshaped it into the form of a longsword, twisting in midair to land on one of the crosses dotting the landscape.

Not even halfway to her target, a sword bit into her hip as the soldier-ghost used one of her ninja techniques to gain enough height in a split-second. The only reason the dead one managed to get as close as she had was the complete _lack_ of any murderous intent or hatred directed at her, or at anyone at all.

Medusa felt the blade hit her bloodstream this time. There was a heartbeat as her blood hardened to stop the blade…

**-In the soulscape representation of Black Blood vs. Kyuubi-chakra tainted katana-**

"Hmm… this is worrying." Medusa's inner blood demon inspected the tip of a blade that had rather rudely shoved it's way into her realm, sliding on scales to circle the startling phenomena. The elegantly dressed naga-looking thing flicked the edge of the intrusion with one dainty claw.

What had once been merely a stinging blue aura around the metal suddenly shifted to boiling hot _red_.

Alarmed, the half-snake half-woman personification of Medusa's Black Blood Madness tried to back away but suddenly hit something that hadn't been there a moment ago.

A gigantic red paw, patches of it mostly blue but with more than enough of the red energy to enable her to make out what had intruded.

The leering visage of a nine-tailed fox had bent itself from the blade, the creature not even aware enough to understand anything going on but fully willing to attack her anyways.

Only the gaping blue holes in the other creature let the naga slither out of the first bite, tearing off a large swath of her cocktail dress as the fangs pinned it in place.

Landing in a rather undignified coil on the floor, the blood demon only had a moment more to stare at the other demon before it lunged again.

She didn't get away as easily as before, not now that the blade was pouring more of that burning red energy into the massive fox. The fangs that dug deeply into her tail _boiled_ with sheer _HATE_, which disappeared as the intruding blade suddenly slid out just as fast as it had appeared.

**-Back in the real world-**

...only for it to continue on, spilling a fair bit of her blood. Eyes wide in shock, she rapidly formed a Vector Plate below her and launched herself away from the blade, leaving only a bit of bloodspray behind. Face twisting into an angry snarl, the Gorgon gestured with her free hand. "_**Bloody Needle!"**_

The blood hovered in midair for a moment before launching itself as a multitude of spikes at the soldier-ghost who had cut her.

Yanking a forearm up to shield her face, the black needles peppered Fiona's form… only to suddenly steam and bubble into nothing as her non-physical, mostly spiritual form was inhabitable by the Black Blood. Now too far to strike out with the unnerving blade again, the dead woman merely inhaled a deep breath and _spat_ a globe of water at Medusa's head.

"_**Vector Arrow!**_" Not wanting to risk any of the dead-woman's attacks against her, Medusa unleashed a storm of arrows to rip apart the globe of water. While a small part of her mind wondered as to how the hell the woman had done that, the rest of her was far more focused on surviving for as long as she could. Shifting her attention away from the falling soldier for a moment, she hissed a stream of curses under her breath.

Flying towards her at a decent speed was a fairly large pumpkin. Riding on top of the very large, orange gourd was the madman who had gotten her into this fight, accompanied by a new person. This new figure was a tall statuesque woman wearing a black bikini and black fur coat, a witch's hat upon her head that was apparently holding the madman close to her by wrapping an arm around his waist, more than likely to keep him from falling off. Even as she could feel her wound stitching itself back together, a boon from the Black Blood, the young man raised a gauntlet in her direction.

_I know that there's a blade on it, but he's far too far away to even attempt to charge, so what-_ Medusa's train of thought was abruptly (and rather rudely) interrupted by a _bolt of lightning_ launched from the young man's hand and struck her, jolting her painfully. Stifling a scream of pain, she reflexively threw her sword at the madman even while forming a second one in her off-hand and conjuring a Vector Plate below her to propel her at the duo. Unsurprisingly, the madman deflected her thrown Vector with his offhand's blade, but was forced to leap back alongside the woman holding him as Medusa landed on the gourd, a Vector manifesting from her backside like a tail to stab into the gourd and provide her secure footing. Shifting her sword from one hand to the other, she narrowed her eyes at the young man and the woman facing her.

"In the interest of curiousity, I would like to know the name of the one who lead to my death." Her tone was cold and biting, but she refrained from attacking just yet. The mad young man tilted his head to the side.

"Mmm… I suppose that's fair. It's Orion." As he spoke, his companion withdrew the arm-like fabric from around his waist to retreat back onto her hat. "This is Blair, the magic cat."

Medusa's gaze shifted a smidge, enough so that they knew she was addressing the woman named Blair that was obviously the cat that had attacked her earlier in a different form. "A Monster? Why would a Monster help the DWMA over a Witch?"

The cat-woman's own eyes were narrowed, absolutely no trace of any playfulness that one would expect in that of a cat present within them. "Unlike a majority of Monsters, I'm actually rather fond of humans and their antics. You threatening children spurred me to attack you alongside them."

With those words Orion rushed forward, fist cocked back. Medusa easily blocked his fist with her weapon, though there was a bit of strain from the force of the blow. Suddenly his left, enshrouded in a dense black aura, launched itself forward and buried itself into her gut, actually breaking through her Black Blood with raw brute force. The snake witch coughed up a small amount of blood due to the sudden internal damage, her Vector sword disappearing while a fair amount also spilled from the wound.

She reacted instinctively. "_**BLOODY NEEDLE!**_" The copious amount of blood froze in mid-air before changing direction and stabbing at the young man who had managed to hurt her. While quite a bit of it was blocked by the sudden manifestation of an orange aura around various parts of his body, a decent amount still struck him in the torso with a fair amount of force, launching him away from the witch with a bit of the blood residing within his system, more than likely waiting to kill him when the opportunity arises. _At least that's one for sure death._ A moment's thought had the remaining blood flow into her wound, rejoining her body as the hole began repairing itself immediately.

A sudden hiss, dissimilar to that of her snakes, alerted Medusa to the approach of Blair, who struck out with a rather powerful kick that the witch blocked with a forearm. A few seconds passed as the women, one a Witch and the other a Monster, fought a martial duel atop the giant pumpkin before Medusa slipped through the cat-woman's guard and slammed her skull with a kick, launching her off the pumpkin. Medusa felt a moment's triumph for getting the best of her opponent.

"_**Halloween Cannon!"**_

That feeling was quickly blasted away in a similar manner to the pumpkin exploding beneath her feet.

* * *

"Man, what the hell hit me…" I grumbled as I returned to full consciousness. Well, relative full consciousness, as I didn't recognize my surroundings. A dimly lit room with a few lamps scattered about, I could tell I was nowhere normal. A color scheme of black and blood red filled the room, with a variety of doors upon the walls painted varying shades of grey. An ornate table littered with books sat in the middle of the room, and a multitude of bookcases lined the walls in between the doors. I slowly clambered to my feet, taking in the odd room.

"Huh… I like the color scheme. Kind of morbid, but beautiful in it's own way."

"It would be odd if you didn't like the layout of your own soul."

The unknown voice coming from behind had me spinning in place to face the stranger. I raised an eyebrow as they moved into the light, the motion decidedly _not_ human. The figure was most definitely a woman, evidenced by the ample curve of her chest. Clad in a black cocktail dress, the womanly creature had a massive snake's tail instead of legs. She possessed stark white hair and striking blue eyes, and the expression on her face was rather neutral. The most striking thing about her, aside from the tail, was the large rip in her dress and a fair sized hole in her tail, though she made no sign of discomfort. I was impressed, considering that the wound and dress were both being stitched up slowly as time passed.

"My soul was a lot more white until I messed with the layout." I commented, remaining wary of the intruder. "The last woman in it also punched me." Ruby was also a woman, but I was more so referring to Yang.

The snake-woman gave a rippling shrug. "I highly doubt that you were completely Mad when you last entered your Soul. That has affected you quite deeply."

Mad? The memories of my last actions rushed forward in my mind and I groaned. "Fuck. I seriously underestimated the strength of an Old God's soul." I looked closely at the wounded woman. "Assuming you're the representation of my madness, I would like to point that I figured you'd be male. My Shadow was."

The naga tilted her head to the side slightly. "True, your Madness would be represented by a male figure normally. However, I am not the representation of your Madness, nor am I a Shadow."

I blinked. "Okay, then what the fuck are you, and how the hell did you get here?"

The snake-woman gave a pretty good rendition of a curtsy, considering the tail. "I am Kaijin, the representation of Madness for Medusa Gorgon. I am here because you were struck by and infected by the Black Blood."

I felt a chill run down my spine. Infected? _That's…. Really not good._ "I thought the Black Blood was represented by a tiny little ogre dude?"

Kaijin's smile was mocking and insincere. "Each person's representation of the Black Blood is unique. Generally in the form of a monster that is most related to the person, the representative is the full incarnation of the Madness inherent in the person that the Black Blood feeds off of."

I slowly edged away from her a little. "Still not explaining how you are here. Cause I'm not really snake-like, or a woman. Or Medusa Gorgon, for that matter."

"So saying…" The woman's words indicated that she barely noticed my interjection. "I am here because my previous host is going to die, and I possess just as much of a survival instinct as she does. While normally the Black Blood does as I stated before, my previous host's soul was powerful enough to leave a lingering impression, thus allowing me to manifest."

"Ooookaay….." I drawled slowly. "So why, exactly, am I not going to attack you? And why is my apparent Madness not made manifest?"

"For the latter, I am taking up the role of the representation of your Madness." She admitted. Her face then grew irritated. "As for the former, because attacking and possibly killing me will let both of your Madness run free."

"Both?" _That's… an even worse sign. This is very very not good._

"You were recently infected by the Madness of Order present in the wavelength of Death's soul." Kaijin stated matter of factly. "However, you were somehow influenced by something extremely powerful beforehand, leaving you with a second Madness. These two Madnesses are preventing you from feeling the effects of the Madness of the Black Blood."

_Fuck, can _not _let this reach Ozpin. Really don't need an "I told you so" over this matter._ "So, my own insanity prevents other insanity?" I asked rhetorically. "Ok, while kind of useful…"

"You are not able to suppress both Madnesses, not for a long period of time." She cut me off mid-thought. "One or the other, yes, however I assume you do not wish to operate as a Madman for the rest of your life. If you attempt to suppress both of them, you will be able to do so only briefly before they overwhelm your willpower. While you are admittedly powerful in that regard, the Madness of two Gods is not so easily denied."

"What's your stake in this?" I questioned her. "I remember that Medusa was able to possess others, and the Black Blood advocated use of itself so as to take over it's own host."

"While this is true in normal circumstances, and indeed if you were anyone else I would attempt to subvert you…" The naga slithered forward to be only a few paces away from me, looking me dead in the eye. "I am as incapable of suppressing both Madnesses inherent within you as you are. If I subverted you and took control, I too would lose myself."

"So, what, you're going to help me? Free of charge?" I shook my head. "Nothing in this world is free. Pull the other one."

"I can suppress one Madness within you." Kaijin stated bluntly. "I will do this in return for allowing myself to exist within you, and for brief periods for which I can control your body. As the Black Blood made manifest, I am able to grant you the boons of it whenever you give in to me."

I pondered what she said. _If she's right, turning her down is not an option. Going insane is not something I want to risk in any case. As for allowing her control of me…_ "Is it just control of me? Or simply allowing yourself to exist as more than just a figment of someone's mind?"

"A bit of both." She admitted candidly. "While I still possess the desire to overtake you, I recognize that this is impossible for any sense of permanency."

"Hmm…" I turned away from her and regarded the surroundings again. "You are aware of my ability to manifest my soul physically, yes? I should be able to manifest you, as a piece of my soul, for a period of time and allowing you to interact with others."

_That_ got her attention focused solely on me. "Truly?" She queried, then nodded to herself. "You must be speaking truthfully; you are as unable to lie within this room as I am." Her expression was contemplative. "This does change things. I will help suppress your Madness in return for letting me live. I will grant you any one boon at a time in return for manifesting myself whenever you are able." Her expression then hardened. "However, in order for you to access all of the Black Blood's power at once, or empower others with it, or delve into your Madness, you will have to give in to me. Do we have an accord?"

I nodded. "I'm fine with that. So, seal it with a handshake, orrr…." I was cut off by her suddenly moving forward, her body molding to mine as she gave me a surprise kiss. She maintained it for a few seconds before pulling away, satisfied.

"That will do, I believe." Suddenly the room around us shook, and her expression grew pensive. "Time for you to wake up it seems."

My head swiveled back and forth as the room shook again. "Hey, can you at least tell me what my other Madness is?"

"You haven't realized?" She inquired, then shrugged once more as another quake dimmed the lights. "The Madness of Apathy, of course."

And then everything went black.

* * *

"_OI! _You _little brat_, get the hell _up_ already!"

These words were immediately followed by a rather painful slap across my face. My eyes opened and I bolted upright, waving my arms.

"I AM A GROWN-ASS MAN AND WHAT IS YOUR MALFUNCTION, WOMAN?!" I roared out before blinking as I returned to full awareness of my surroundings. "Oh. Huh. Hi Fiona. What I miss?"

"A fair bit. Now _move it._"

I rolled back and then hopped up to my feet, noticing that the stinging sensation was already gone. "Mind summarizing? Last I remember was being a dumbshit and basking in Reaper Man's soul."

"That…? Alright. The quick and dirty of it is Medusa's fully aware we're aware she's a witch. Sid and Stein are trying to herd her into Shinigami-sama's range, but they need another set or two to finish the herding. Dodge the damn black arrows, do _not_ get hit by her stupid needles, and your green-haired speedster fellow is damn impressive with how he's being _not there_ when things go to hell. Don't know where your kitty-lady goes, but she's doing well as a surprise sniper."

"Oobleck hunts genocidal monsters for a living, Blair's magic is actually well-suited to long range, figured on the arrows, and a bit late on the needles. Fortunately, they're a non-issue for me now." _Probably._

"**Oh, I wouldn't worry. Even if you do get hit by more Black Blood, I will still stick to our terms. The amount of it present in your system means little to my actual strength, in truth."**

_What the hell?_ "Please tell me you heard that." I asked the ghostly sergeant. "By 'that' I mean a woman's voice besides yours."

"...no?" Fiona offered after a moment, glancing to where Sid very nearly didn't dodge a barrage of arrows far from where we were standing. "I mean, besides miss bitchy-witch over there and Miss Blair's, I don't hear another woman."

"... Dealing with that later then." I shoved that concern aside (and carefully ignored the chuckle in the back of my head that _was not my voice_) and hurriedly began fiddling with my dust vials, swapping out my current ones for air ones. "Kill Medusa now, so long as I'm not dead or dying everything else involving me is a non-issue. No worries if I get hit again, I can guarantee I'll recover from anything short of dismemberment or an immediately fatal blow."

"Good company then, given I can survive the rest of it." Snorted the dead woman, re-conjuring a katana blade to her hand and kicking something up off the ground. "Here, hold onto these for me. I need more range."

I caught the objects, recognizing her dog tags. "Sure. Now then… Let's do this." I double-checked my vials before nodding and pointing my arms behind me. "I've always wanted an excuse to yell this." So saying, I unleashed dual blasts of air behind me as I fired off my shotguns in tandem, launching myself high into the air.

I spun in midair, taking in the scene below as I flew up. Medusa was a barely visible blur, fllitting from plate to plate in a small area while fending off blows from both Stein and Sid. Occasionally she went skyward only to quickly descend to dodge a magical blast that was presumably from Blair, judging by the orange. Oobleck darted in and out of the mess, taking potshots with his weapon whenever he saw the chance. I twisted in mid-air to position myself as pointed towards Medusa, arms back and body straight. I fired again, launching myself at rapid speeds that increased with every passing second because of gravity.

… _Oh wait. Aura can only take so much. I need to survive this landing!_

"**Done."**

I felt a _shift_ within myself, and grinned. _Weell…. Since I have the chance._

"LEEEERRRROOOOOYYYY JEEEENNNNKKKIIIIIINNNSSSS!"

"_OH MY GOD! REALLY?_"

At my shout (and apparently ignoring Fiona's), Medusa's face turned skywards, shock written across it. One fist cocked back as I flew towards her, I had a massive grin on my face. "NIGHT-NIGHT, BITCH."

And then I slammed my fist into her face at terminal velocity. Well, terminal for normal people. Medusa was slammed into the ground, skull bouncing off as the impact left a crater. _Huh, I generated a _lot _of force._ "FIONA, GO!"

The expected blinding flare of _blue-purple-red_ later, the ghostly sergeant ripped the witch out of her crater and bodily _flung_ her towards Sid. Taking his cue from his fellow undead, the zombie slammed a boot into the woman's stomach and brutally redirected her into the air more in Stein's direction.

Stein darted forward, jumping up with a palm strike at the ready. A moment later he struck, palm twisting as he attacked. "_**Soul Force!**_" The resulting blow launched the snake-themed woman at the ground at a fair velocity. Before she could hit, however, Oobleck rushed forward at maximum speed and struck her with a two-handed blow, sending her flying away from us. A moment later an explosion struck her from the side, sending her spinning away to eventually fall to the ground at Death's feet(?). Pushing herself upward, Medusa directed her attention to the figure in front of her… and then looked up, paling.

"Fuck."

"Miss Medusa? Consider yourself fired." Shinigami-sama informed her cheerily, a near-audible inhale making his cloaked form inflate as energy pulled from the very air entered it's mask by the eye holes. Medusa had only a moment, within which she barely managed an inch of movement to try to escape with, before the old god unleashed a shockwave of energy directly over her head.

All of us flinched away from the brightness of the attack. When we could look again, the only thing left was a smoking crater around Death, and a floating purple ball with arrows similar to Medusa's vectors crossing over it. I whistled lowly.

"Damn… Reaper Man does _not_ fuck around, does he?"

* * *

I plopped down heavily in a chair that was sitting near Death's desk. He had conjured up multiple chairs for all of us to array ourselves in after locking up Medusa's soul and cleaning up a bit from the fight. Arranged in a circular manner, everyone was seated in a chair aside from Lord Death (can he even sit?) and Blair, who had preferred to swap to cat form and lay down on top of my chair. After I had sat down in it, she had swapped positions to rest in my lap instead, one of my hands coming up to stroke her gently.

"Admittedly, that could have gone better." I commented idly. "While it could have gone a _lot_ worse, considering we're all alive and with minor injuries, that could have gone better. That she had injected herself with Black Blood…"

"**And infected you with it, leaving you with me?"**

_Not now Kaijin._ I twitched as I heard her mocking laughter resound in my head, accompanying a brief stinging sensation in my body. That sensation then intensified to outright pain for a moment, leaving me to begin cursing under my breath. "Sadistic little…"

Yeah, ending up with a chibi demon that could manipulate my _fucking blood_ was not in the plan.

"So… Mister Orion. A question, if you please." Shinigami-sama offered in an overly cheerful if slightly terrifying tone. "Are you somewhat like our own Miss Fiona?"

"Depends on what you mean. If you mean the whole being dead thing, then no, I am very much alive and actually in need of important things like oxygen or water." I answered wearily, a bit too tired to be terrified of the old god.

"...screw you." Fiona snipped irritably, sinking down in her own chair.

Sid patted his fellow undead on the shoulder. "At least you've accepted the whole 'dead' thing? We got you that far, at least."

"Bit out of my age range Fiona." I snarked back at her. "As for the trans-dimensionally displaced thing? Kind of."

"_I_ am young enough to be not that much older than you, and old enough to be a grandmother." Sniffed the dead woman, batting a hand. "So you're both correct and not. And as far as I'm aware, Shinigami-sama, it's more like he's something close in situation as Natsumi was… just with a bit less clarity on the how."

"Also, I was just ripped from my world. I have a lot of raw data, but any personal memories are completely obliterated." I mentioned off-handedly. "Relearning morals hasn't exactly been perfect, but fairly close. I think."

"That's… an interesting experiment." Stein mused thoughtfully from Fiona's other side. "I wonder…"

"Let's not and say we did, for now."

"Stein, experiment on that on yourself. Suffice to say, considering how much a person is made of memories, it's fairly close to a miracle that I have any sort of personality." I drawled. "The whole "unlocking my Aura" might have helped though."

"No actually. I've… known others second-hand that had the memories, and still had no personality to speak of. As well as others re-learning social norms after being brainwashed." Fiona interjected, staring off into nothing. "It's actually a fair miracle that you're not entirely a murderous little ball of instinct instead of rational thought."

I shrugged. "That would have been too much work. While I am a bit apathetic… Actually I was a lot, but I'm getting better, I still do have emotions. Because I apparently have a stupidly powerful soul." I pondered for a moment. "I mean yeah, I might've gone a little insane, but I'm still functional in a civilized society."

She snorted at me, actually leaning sideways onto Stein. "All the best ones are crazy. It's just when they go off the deep end that others worry."

"Such as the Headmaster worrying about your mental state, thus confronting you before Mister Orion." Oobleck interjected. "From today's proceedings, it seems he was justified."

I scowled. "I didn't actually think I was insane then. A bit odd, but that was kind of par for the course. It was only recently that it's been confirmed I was actually a bit mad." I then sighed. "Of course, if I wasn't before, I am now."

"You're over the worst of it now." Fiona offered absently. "That bump to realization you're not as sane as society says you should be. Now you just have to remind yourself you're not sane, and that sometimes the reactions you want to go with aren't the best ones."

"Uh, Fiona? Just a hypothetical question here." I slowly spoke, as I remembered something Kaijin had mentioned earlier. "You know my earlier reaction was due to exposing myself to the Madness present in Lord Death since he's one of the Great Old Ones right?"

"...Shinigami-sama has the Madness of Order. You should've been mindlessly cleaning up a storm, not having a screaming fit had you been perfectly 'sane'." She countered just as slowly, refocusing on the group. "Since you didn't, and you _do_ have a very strong soul, something else is up."

"I may have apparently been infected by a Madness of a different great old one beforehand?" I offered weakly. "May. Possibly. Considering I don't entirely know how I ended up where I was a few months ago with selective amnesia…"

"That's still better than waking up as less than a ghost attached to a fucking _assassin_."

I scowled at her. "Really? I'll trade you. I wouldn't mind being dead if it meant remembering my family, my friends, any lovers I may have had. Hell, I can't even remember if I had a pet!"

"...so, you'd rather remember exactly how they died instead? Their injuries that caused it? Which ones _bleed out to death with me?_" Fiona smiled grimly. "Worse yet, I _lead_ my squad to their deaths. The people that looked up to me, that I got to know for _years_ before we died in an ambush. Died because I picked the wrong path that day."

I flinched. "Ok, point to you. So, back to the original hypothetical question. What kind of advice would you offer someone that is currently suffering 3 different types of Madness? Hypothetically."

Fiona blinked slowly, first her right eye then her left. "Either a keeper or picking someone you know _has_ proper morals and asking yourself what they would do in the same situations you end up with."

"And if the people this hypothetical person knows mainly consists of criminals, hormone driven teenagers, and leaders with significant authority?"

"You're kind of screwed, then."

"... Am I the only one who wants to go find a version of Harry Potter and yell at him about how easy he has it?" I asked. "Because honestly, this whole shenanigans that is my life makes his look blessed."

Sid looked over at Spirit. "Should we know who he's talking about?"

Spirit frowned thoughtfully. "The name sounds a bit familiar, but I can't remember where…"

"It's in one of Maka dear's books." The cat in my lap piped up, cracking an eye open to look at the group. "Main character of a series. Kid is hunted by the lich-like abomination that killed his parents but is protected by his mother's love and dying sacrifice. Has a nasty habit of being in the wrong place at the right time."

I blinked down at her. "... I didn't think you had those books. Then again, this is an Earth…" I blinked again when a thought occurred to me. "Wait, when the hell did you ever read those?"

The cat shifted her gaze up to me. "It's not like I have much to do aside from bugging the local fishmonger for food while Maka and Soul are at school, ya know. I need to keep myself occupied _somehow._ As I sadly lost my job after accidentally driving _him_," at this she flicked a tail at Spirit, "Deep into the depths of a bottle because he's not that great of a parent…"

And cue gloom cloud over aforementioned father. Damn, that's harsh Blair… _Hold up._

"Weren't you meowing like every damn sentence earlier? And acting a lot more childish?" I accused her, though I was admittedly still petting her.

"I got tired of that. You didn't think I actually spoke like that all the time did you?" The Monster closed her eye again. "I'm 48 years old, give me some credit."

"... gotta say, you look damn good for a 48 year old woman." I pointed out.

"Mister Orion…" Oobleck spoke up carefully, considering something. "If I may be so bold, where would the 3rd Madness of this hypothetical person originate from?"

_That_ got everyone's attention. I hesitated. "Ah, well, that might be because something designed to wake a Kishin wouldn't exactly be normal and would more than likely have negative effects on anything it may touch?"

Sid carefully shifted in his chair, studying me intently. "And when were you going to mention being hit by the Black Blood?"

"When there was someone here that could do something about it beyond dissecting and/or killing me." I stated flatly. "Since your head medical officer was both a witch and the inventor of the blood, and is also now a corpse, I wasn't exactly banking any hopes on you currently having someone on hand to help with that."

Oobleck piped up from his chair, addressing Death. "Lord Death, didn't you mention one of your subordinates could affect the Madness of others?"

The cloaked figure slowly nodded, a hand sprouting from him and stroking his chin(?) thoughtfully. "Marie Mjolnir, one of my Death Scythes, does indeed possess the ability to calm the Madness present in others. She is currently assigned elsewhere, however I can recall her here. I suppose that would the best decision, as there is no telling what damage Medusa may have done to the students during her time here. She also should be able to help with clearing up any lingering issues Sergeant Hanson possesses and of course take a look at you, young man." That last part was addressed to me, obviously. I nodded at him.

"Would probably be a good idea. While I've been coping fairly well so far, having someone who actually knows what they're doing check me over at worst can't hurt."

"**She might hurt me!"**

_Relax Kaijin, I have so much personal Madness that you're unlikely to be affected. If you are, I'll make sure nothing permanent happens. We do have a deal, after all._

**AN: …. SO MANY THINGS! Lots and lots of things.**

**I… don't know where to start. I touched on a LOT of shit… That might piss off a bunch of people… I suppose chronological is always a good stand by? Cept the first part was Fiona… IE Vixy… *ponders* Meh, I'll bug her later for her input. So, on to the next part. Which is…**

**Orion gone Mad: Yeah, uh… Whoops? He was technically already a bit **_**loco**_ **before and just wasn't admitting it. But Shinigami-sama IS A GREAT OLD ONE. He's THE LIVING EMBODIMENT of one form of Madness. And he's THE Great Old One, more powerful than any other (Asura, at this point in time, is still sealed within his own skin, and lost before anyway, so doesn't count). So yeah, Orion is legally insane. And apparently was before, he was just suppressing. Heavily. As referenced. Now he's even more insane, but he's coping. Hey, Stein can do it, and Orion isn't psychotic like him, so yay for that. Yeah, that's… that's not actually going away anytime soon. I'm being glared at…**

**Medusa with Black Blood: … Upon thinking about it after setting up the fight, it was a tad bit one-sided. I mean, Blair, Fiona, Orion, Sid/Mira, Stein/Spirit, and Shinigami-sama vs. Medusa? So I gave her Black Blood. Which manifests in her soul as a naga, as that's a far more fitting youkai representation then an oni for her. So yeah, I evolved her from badass to BAMF. Which wasn't really that thought out….**

**Naga vs. Kyuubi: So… yeah. This essentially boils down to the metaphysical level of Black Blood vs. Kyuubi chakra. Which was unfair on so many levels that it wasn't even funny. But hey. Stuff happens. **

_**Vixen Tail : To be clear, or clear-er, Fiona has only an echo of the Kyuubi chakra in her. Some of it is compressed with her soul-rock thing, and she leeches a small amount of it into her chakra manipulations. Hence why Orion stopped sensing her soul so quickly, because she really is partially demonic now. Especially when she reinforces herself/her katana illusions to be more real than normal genjutsu/Yin Release Illusions. But it's enough it has rudimentary intelligence, more just bestial instinct than actual higher thinking functionality. So… that scene with a spotty copy of a massive nine-tailed fox was the corrosive demon chakra Fiona had eating away at Medusa's Black Blood within the witch's soul-scape.**_

**Speaking of…**

**Kaijin the Black Blood Naga: So… Originally meant to be a little throwaway. Completely, I swear. But then I got to thinking, and more thinking, and uh…**

_**He ran away with the idea. I basically poked holes and helped him shore up the reasonings, but yeah. Helped not a bit.**_

**Orion with Black Blood: Yeah, uh, yeah… I'm sorry. But I loved the concept of Kaijin to death, sooo… I stole her from Medusa. And in the process got Orion infected with the Black Blood, giving him a THIRD Madness… and a voice in his head. Hey, at least Fiona isn't the only jinchuriki now? Vixy named her, thanks Vixy! Kaijin isn't a main character, she'll mainly provide color commentary from time to time, and help Orion cope with the Madness… and actually run the Black Blood. Yeah, she's pretty much the living definition of a support character. I didn't mean to make an OC… but it happened. My bad. I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO FALLS IN LOVE WITH THROWAWAY CHARACTERS. Don't judge me. *considers* Erm, don't judge me more harshly than you normally do, rather. Don't worry too much either folks, Orion will be extremely reluctant to use the Black Blood for more than a minor boost, knowing it tends to have costly side effects. It's simply an ace in the hole for him. That will cause him pain occasionally because she's bored. **

**Orion's Semblance: No, he doesn't have it unlocked. He could just use a part of it temporarily while in a Mad state. His passive abilities have improved as a result, but he still lacks the ability to truly tap into it. Sorry folks, but no Semblance use from him just yet.**

**Hmm… Anyway. So next chapter will cover the period of time that Orion and co. are trapped in SE world. THERE SHALL BE TALES. Speaking of tales… WHO WANTS ANOTHER OMAKE!**

* * *

**Death Room, Later on:**

Lord Death adjusted his mirror slightly then nodded in satisfaction. Standing next to him was Stein, twisting his screw as he stared at his reflection, and Spirit, who had his arms crossed and looked rather perplexed.

"So, why, exactly, am I here?" The Death Scythe asked, curious. It wasn't like he knew anything about finding alternate dimensions, he'd be better off teaching one of the classes or keeping an eye on on the newest Madman.

"Dimensional travel is not an exact science." Stein spoke calmly. "Oh sure, there are tales of people doing it properly or with ease, but honestly, because of how expansive and infinite reality is, the amount of people who can actually do so in truth are an inconceivable fraction of a percent. While we do have some points to work off of, there are still an infinite number of worlds that we may accidentally open a portal to instead."

"... That doesn't answer the question, Stein." Spirit spoke flatly, giving his first wielder an annoyed look.

"You're here, Spirit, because I may need your help to deal with the occasional incomprehensible horror or odd monsters that might pop up." Lord Death spoke up cheerfully. "Stein's going to be fine tuning, I'm going to be activating the portal and occasionally fighting off whatever comes through, and you're going to kick everything else out that I won't!"

Spirit resisted the urge to facepalm. Well, at least his day would be interesting…

* * *

"**GROOAAARRRGGHHH**"

"KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!"

"_**SHINIGAMI CHOP!**_"

"Evidently the wrong place… Don't forget to toss the body back through."

"FUCKING HELP US STEIN!"

"**GROOOAAAAARRRRRGGGHHH**"

* * *

The clashing of blades could be heard as Shinigami-sama, wielding Spirit, dueled a heavily scarred man with spiky black hair topped with bells and an eyepatch.

"HAHAHAHA! THIS IS AWESOME!"

"WHY IS HE SO DAMN STRONG?!"

"Dying removes a lot of limits, Spirit. **SHINIGAMI CHOP!**"

"Hmm, not this one…"

* * *

Spirit was fighting another man with an eyepatch and black spiky hair, though no bells were present. Instead, the Death Scythe's opponent was fending off the Demon Weapon blades sprouting from his body with blood-red blades sprouting from his own arms.

"HAHAHA, YOU'RE NOT BAD!"

"BRING IT YOU LUNATIC!"

Shinigami-sama nodded solemnly to himself as he watched the two of them fight. "It's good for Spirit to get some exercise every now and then."

"Indeed."

* * *

The Great Old One struggled to hold back a beast of massive proportions, while Spirit and Stein fought as a tag-team to deal with the goblinoid creatures that spilled out.

"Shinigami-sama, if you could hurry up with tossing that beast back in!"

"I'm trying Spirit, but he's not being very obliging!"

* * *

"Am I speaking to an Ozpin currently?"

"I AM THE GREAT WIZARD OF OZ!"

"Wrong Ozpin."

* * *

**Yeah… incidents of this nature will be happening offscreen nextchapter if you don't see Spirit, Stein, or Lord Death anywhere during a scene. This reflects two of my own beliefs: that there are truly an infinite number of worlds, and thus an infinite number of possibilities, including that which we portray as fantasy, and that dimensional travel is about the farthest thing you can get from precise unless you cheat or the planes you can travel to are in truth limited in nature.**

**Hmmm… I think that's everything. Please Read, Review, and wait for the next update!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Mmm, mixed reviews… Sorry I took so long, it's mainly because I feel people can only read so fast… Plus I keep pointing you all at Vixy. While I love her works and am super thankful for her help… Her works are actually kind of long and take time to read too. So… Yeah. Anyway. Let's see here…**

**EDIT: To add on, I got distracted by Star Ocean release, picking up full-time work, and a few other things of an assorted nature that I'm not mentioning. So yeah. Super long chapter so we can get out of Soul Eater. Enjoy.**

**EDIT:... Yeah, so my muse kind of abandoned me… and apparently Vixy for a bit, but mainly me. And life got super busy. And very very insane. Like, in perspective, my life is nearly as insane as Orion's. So… I am super sorry. But consolation? Super long chapter, and we return to RWBY at the end of it. And the only person going with the natives (and Orion) is Fiona. Couldn't think of a good reason to take Blair along, so she stays.**

**RRC: So then. Let's see…**

**Reaper of insanity: Nah, Orion never gets break. That would ruin the point. And the insanity is more my fault than yours. **

**Raidentensho: Never seen… actually anything at all of Kamen Rider. And while Orion occasionally rips off moves from media, sheerly because he can, his own equipment and fighting style is mostly self-made. Glad you're still enjoying, As one of my most faithful followers!**

**Drunkle Qrow: They're back in Remnant near the end of this chapter. I'm glad you liked the RWBY bits. *gives cookie***

**Potato Man: Yeah… The whole thing with ALL of the girls is going to be… awkward, especially when he introduces Fiona to them…**

**Bob-870: Yes. Yes indeed. I went there.**

**Selias: And end it shall! This chapter.**

**Tri2: Uh.. no? Because insanity is actually no real joke? Seriously, at the end of last chapter, Orion pretty much qualifies for at least sociopathic, and he's actually a fair bit **_**psychotic**_**. Uhm, not to be a downer, but psychopaths are not good. Ever. Glad you're enjoying though.**

**Hikari-san: Yeah. Consequences of me doing no research. *shrugs* Whoops. **

**Yes, yes Ozpin is. Oobleck is… conflicted. He gets better about the whole thing.**

**Heh, everyone in RWBY-verse is going to revolve in and out of Orion's life, the closer they are to him and the more they interact with him on a regular basis, the more often they'll be dragged into his weirdness.**

**That's… Eh. Probably rarely going to happen if ever, because again, PSYCHOSIS BAD.**

**That would be telling. But Orion can be afflicted with Synesthesia later… and no, not the Noise spawning paint from Xomniac's Worm fic.**

**Doctor Psychosis: No, no, we are NOT getting Ozpin high. I see that ending badly.**

… **So apparently it might happen at some point. Because Vixy finds it funny. It'll either be a not so serious snippet or an omake though. I think. Eh, we'll see...**

**Umbra: Glad you're enjoying! Yeah, madness is entertaining in terms of media. In reality? It's actually kind of horrifying… on so many levels…**

**Yoshtar: … I did not know that about Roman and Velvet, though I knew about Neo. Interesting… Welp, I feel justified in my actions then.**

**Isodrink: *gives cookie* Thank you for the constructive feedback! I truly appreciate it. I cringe whenever I go back and read the first 5-6ish chapters… I WILL go back and rework those… at some point… maybe… my laziness wars with my cringing.**

**Anerian James: Another chapter!**

**ShotgunWilly: *gives cookie* Well we are back to RWBY! And yeah, Soul Eater took longer than expected, I commented on that in the AN. Somewhere. Good luck finding where though, the AN is kind of a mess.**

**That one nigga: *gives cookie anyway, shrugging* Meh. It isn't JUST other anime. First it was a game.**

**So, I'm going to sum up my response to any and all flames here, including any grumbling at me for crossovers or including Vixy's character or pretty much anything else I plan to do from here on out that might annoy you? This fic, is because I want to write it. I put it up for the possible entertainment you all get from it, but really? Half of this fic is self-gratification crack of seeing what I can feasibly get away with, another quarter is seeing how myself and now Vixy through Fiona can fix various anime after screwing up canon in the place, and the remaining quarter is seeing the reactions of you people. I'm serious occasionally in story, but honestly? This fic is more like a game to me than any real piece of writing. You have an issue with that? Don't care. At this point, anyone else who just blatantly complains about what I'm doing without ANY justification or helpful criticism is going to be reported. I have little life, and tremendous amounts of patience when vexed enough, I will go through each and every reply and report the flames. The RRC is proof I go through every review anyways.**

**Now then… on with the story.**

**Tales of Death City (Yes, I know, blatant, but it's fanfiction, so it's allowed)**

"Sooo…" I drawled, spinning on the rolly chair in the infirmary. Around me Sid and Mira were rummaging through the drawers and shelves, inspecting various bits of paperwork and medicines. After dealing with Medusa in a permanent manner (and getting some sleep because fuck it it had been a long day), it was brought up that Medusa had been nurse here, and head of medical outright, for a fair period of time. Enough for her to have done a fair bit of damage or experimentation to the students or the supplies, which would be very very bad. "Aside from, you know, making sure that the witch didn't do anything to the students or sabotaging the medical supplies, anything else you're looking for?"

Sid didn't even look up from the student reports he was checking over. "Any of her research or anything non-school related she may have written down. Dossiers on fellow witches or possible allies she may have looked into, things like that. Even Stein, as hyper-intelligent as he is, writes things down, so she must have written _some_ of her ideas down somewhere in here."

Due to my state of Madness, despite my rather normal behavior, I was instructed to always remain near a member of the faculty at all times in case I slip back into the Madness, at least until the Death Scythe that could suppress a Madness wavelength got here, which would be within the next day or so. I didn't mind; I got along fine with all of the staff aside from Stein, and for now he was preoccupied with other things so he wasn't available to be on the watch for me. Fiona was off teaching one of the classes, with Oobleck teaching the other (hell if I could remember which was which; I didn't even know there were two separate classes of students until I came here). I stopped my spinning to watch as Mira set other set of folders down on a bed before going back to inspecting the cabinets as Sid set one report aside and opened the next.

"Don't suppose you guys would like a little help?" I asked casually, leaning back. The zombie man shrugged, glancing at me briefly before returning his attention to the paperwork.

"Sure. Might as well, since you're here. Anything that looks out of the ordinary is our goal here."

I nodded, understanding, before shifting my attention as I felt a brief spike of pain throughout my body, twitching. _Ow, damnit Kaijin, quit that!_

"**Hmmm… Nope. Anyway, if you want to find Medusa's files, I'd recommend the hidden drawer in her desk."**

I tilted my head curiously. _Hidden drawer?_

"**Indeed. My previous host set up a hidden drawer into the very bottom of the desk, then used spatial magic to increase the amount of storage space within it. Here, allow me…"**

I felt another pain, this time mainly focused in my left leg, before my heel was suddenly slammed into the desk behind me, just below the drawer. As my foot retreated, the bottom of the desk slid out where I hit, and kept going until it hit the end of the room in a comical manner. Inside was an array of various folders and files, along with some medicinal bottles at the back. I blinked at the sight, while Sid and Mira gaped at the sudden appearance of so many incriminating papers right below their noses.

"... Well whaddya know? My luck isn't purely bad." I commented idly, picking up a pill bottle and inspecting it curiously. "Huh, this is interesting… Apparently this is supposed to enhance the durability of the Black Blood over time with small doses." Suddenly a blue-skinned hand swiped the bottle away from me, causing me to frown. "Hey."

"Don't even think about it." Sid scolded me, putting the bottle back and cautiously looking over the drawer for any traps that might be in place. "So long as your stability is in question, you don't get to experiment with anything that has a fairly decent chance of making it _worse_."

"**How rude of him. And just after I helped."**

_They're kind of right. _I shrugged. "Fine, just don't get rid of that stuff. Might come in handy."

Sid looked up. "How could something that worsens Madness come in handy, ever?"

I waved my hand flippantly at him while my other pulled a folder at random from the drawer. "I'll explain it when your expert looks me over. Meantime, incriminating evidence and evil plots that must be gone over." I opened the folder and… I tried to pale, but it didn't happen. Possibly because Kaijin was regulating my blood flow so it was still perfectly normal. _Note to self; when all of this is over, go gambling_. "I knew I forgot something important."

"That being?" Sid asked even as he pulled out another folder.

"Medusa had a kid that she experimented on with Black Blood." I kept my tone decidedly neutral as I read through the document. "Like, to the point that the kid's Demon Weapon partner IS HIS BLOOD. Goes by the name of Ragnarok. And he.. Or she, Medusa switches between pronouns, is currently locked up in Italy. Like, locked in a room with no light in a safehouse in Italy that only Medusa knows about and hasn't been fed for a day."

The only sound after that was that of the folder hitting the ground.

* * *

"... And so, because I helped, you're now stuck with me for the rest of the day while Sid and Mira go take care of that little problem." I finished up as I leaned back in the rolly chair I had stolen from the nurse's office. After finding out about Crona (read: remembering), I had been picked up, chair and all, by the panicked zombie man and tossed in the classroom wheels first, landing on my back in front of the stunned class, Spirit, and Fiona. I hadn't bothered to get up, so really by leaning back I was just relaxing on the floor, hands behind my head. The floor was really quite comfy. "So, what you guys teaching?"

"Right now?" Fiona checked the clipboard in her hands. "A whole lot of nothing. Testing, remember? We just finished with administering said test yesterday, and since they haven't yet been graded for specific, not to be mentioned reasons…? We're doing a review. Geography and how to read a road map 101."

"Map reading, a dying skill, sad to say." I commented from the floor. "Geography close enough to ours that I can contribute? Actually, wait, no, nevermind, I barely passed Geography…"

The dead woman heaved a sigh. "Yeah… I know. But still, if a corrupted soul leads a meister-weapon pair off the beaten track? It's at least beneficial for the kids to at least be familiar with how to relocate a road or any sign of civilization. So… yeah. Spirit's just here to be in the way, I guess…"

I watched as a gloom cloud formed over the man's head as he suddenly seemed to teleport into a corner, huddled to the ground grasping his knees. "Damn, that's harsh. Uh… I kind of can't leave, sadly, because I need to be near someone capable of subduing me that isn't Stein at all times, so... " I tilted my head to look at the students. "Who's bored and wants to fight me?"

"If you would let me finish _teaching the class what they need to know in case of the worst_… I will." Fiona snapped a little irritably. "Until that time, take the pervert back there and whack him about the hallways a little for all I care. He can't read a map to save his damn life."

"... I'll at least whack him." I cracked my neck before standing up and lifting the rolly chair, hefting it. "..., Eh, the room's reinforced. Hey MAN-WHORE WHO CAN'T RAISE A CHILD!"

Spirit immediately stood and spun, rage on his face. "What did you just call me, br-" Only to be cut off mid-sentence as the chair slammed into his skull, sending him flying at the wall. I scowled after him.

"Would you people PLEASE quit calling me a brat! Only people who can get away with that are people who have over 4 decades on me."

"That would be me, brat. Take it out of the classroom so I can at least begin the lesson."

"LIVING 4 decades longer than me! You don't count ghost lady." I snapped back before dodging an irate Spirit as he attempted to cut me. "The hell man! That could have killed me!"

"No it wouldn't. I've seen your Aura, remember?" He responded dryly, shifting his stance.

"Ah… Right. Allow me to deliver the appropriate response!" I raised a finger… Before turning and bolting out of the classroom, waving cheerfully at Fiona as I passed by. "Be back in a bit!"

"Try not to dent the floors and lockers too badly with his face, the kiddies don't need to see that anywhere permanent." Fiona offered blandly, turning to the rather dumbfounded class watching their supposedly well-respected authority figures bicker and fight like children. "Now then, everyone turn to the compass each meister has…."

Fiona's voice trailed off as I took a sharp turn and bolted, Spirit skidding out of the classroom. "Come and get me, you ABSOLUTE FAILURE OF A PLAYBOY!" I called over my shoulder as I legged it away from the classroom.

"I AM NOT A FAILURE!" He roared back, a multitude of blades sprouting from his back before he _leapt, _an array of blades barreling at me.

"Oh shit-" I ducked and rolled as he soared over me, coming back to my feet with my gauntlets equipped. _This… Might be a bit difficult._

"**I suppose I might as well help… With that Aura of yours, you don't really need the durability, so how about a strength boost so you can actually smack that pervert around? He was quite annoying to my previous host."**

I gritted my teeth as I felt a _shifting_ within my body. Carrying the Black Blood was a highly uncomfortable feeling: even normally, you could always feel the blood running through your veins, though I could ignore it after a bit. However, whenever Kaijin felt it necessary to switch which boon she was granting me, I went through a fair bit of pain as she did so. _I would thank you if that didn't hurt so much._

I then snapped out the blade on my right hand and caught one of Spirit's legs on it's downswing, locking us into a temporary stalemate while our weapons clashed. "Heh, maybe not my brightest idea to fight a living weapon." I commented, straining to hold up his leg with one arm.

The man merely chuckled grimly. "Yeah, it's generally a mistake people don't realize until _after_ they're all cut up."

"Oh, I never said it's a mistake. It's not like I'm totally outclassed here." I offered before slamming my left fist into his groin. His eyes went wide before he dropped to the ground, rolling back and forth while clutching his nads, tears of pain streaming down his eyes.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? HAVE YOU NOT HEARD OF MAN LAW?!" Spirit cried as he rolled back and forth. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Actually, no. Anyway, whenever you're done? I know you're far more durable for that to put you down for more than a few moments." At my words Spirit rolled over onto his arms before spinning and launching another bladed kick out of me that I leaned back to avoid. He suddenly changed direction _without any loss of momentum_ and struck out at me again, this time actually hitting me and slamming me towards the wall, causing me to grunt in pain at the point of impact. I staggered away while he jumped back to his feet, bouncing up and down briefly.

"Ok, _what?_ I know you defied at least two different laws of physics there, what the hell?!" I demanded, stopping and shifting into a boxing stance. Spirit shrugged, hands in his pockets.

"I'm a Death Scythe. Hell, I'm pretty much THE Death Scythe, to be honest. You didn't think I was useless without a meister did you?"

"Well, to be honest…" I trailed off, letting him come to the obvious conclusion. "To be fair, you pretty much are? What with your daughter showing you absolutely no respect and your constant belittling by your coworkers…."

He immediately huddled down into a gloom cloud, crying tears of sorrow. I had no patience for that, however, and he suddenly was toppled over by a bucket to the head. Immediately he came to his feet, a tick mark on his head. "QUIT DOING THAT! And where the hell do you keep finding all of this stuff?"

I blinked, then looked to where I grabbed the bucket. Floating in the air was a mop and broom enshrouded in a purple aura, along with a cat riding a pumpkin. "Apparently from there. Hi Blair."

Blair leapt from her perch to land atop my head, laying down on it. "Hello there. Why are you two fighting?"

"Because I'm bored, and he wasn't contributing to class, so Fiona asked me to, and I'm paraphrasing, 'bounce the pervert's skull off the hallways'. So, that's what's happening."

Spirit immediately became enraged. "I AM NOT A PERVERT!"

I gave him a completely blank look before glancing up at the cat currently quite comfy on my head. I reached up and grabbed her before perching her on my shoulder. "Feel like helping with something?"

"Depends on what it is." I lowered my voice to a whisper and began to confer with her. After a few moments, Spirit stomped his foot.

"Oi! We're fighting here!" His face became decidedly worried when Blair and I turned evil expressions upon him. "Why do I suddenly fear for my dignity?"

Blair leapt from my shoulder at his face, enveloping herself in a cloud of smoke mid-leap. She popped out of the cloud of smoke as nude as she was when she went in, and thus smashed her massive nude breasts into the Death Scythe's face. "Spirit-kuuuuuunnn!"

Give the man credit, he lasted for about 10 seconds, a fair bit longer than Kilik. Of course, he still lost to his hormones, and thus his head shot back from a powerful nosebleed. Even still, I could see he was still conscious, though fairly weakened. Blair fell to the ground and, demonstrating her impressive flexibility and overall body shape, and threw the man at me. I, in turn, caught him by his collar and the middle of his shirt and continued the throw, launching him out of a nearby window. I blinked as I suddenly realized what I had just done. Out in the air I could see Spirit blinking as well, as he came to terms with his situation. Blair strutted up to lean on my back, still without clothes.

"... How many floors up are we again?"

"3, dear."

"Ah. Whoops?"

And then Spirit let out a girlish scream as he plummeted. I leaned out the window and shouted down to him. "Don't forget to weapon-shift! It should help break the fall!" I then turned and looked at Blair, not paying much attention to her form. I jerked a thumb at the window.

"He'll be fine, right?"

"Probably."

"... wanna go see what happens if you walk into a class full of hormonal teens like that?"

"Lead on."

* * *

"Fiona, I'm back! And I brought a friend!" I called out as I wandered back into the classroom, collapsing my gauntlets as I walked in.

"Joy." Deadpanned the ghostly sergeant as she tossed a number of compasses in various working orders into a cardboard box on the recently refurbished desk. "Want to see what your skills amount to against an ANBU captain that specialized in assassination's signature assassination technique?"

"Only with less witnesses." I agreed cheerfully, before raising my voice. "You can come in now Blair!"

"Hi kiddies!" She called out as she entered the room, clad only in a towel that barely covered her important bits. She leaned down and pressed her breasts together suggestively. "Which one of you little dears wants to take a bath and _play_ with me?" The last was said with a sultry tone as she dropped her towel.

Immediately, all of the males aside from myself, and a couple of females, in the room were unconscious after suffering an extremely powerful nosebleed. The conscious females were gaping in either awe, envy, dumfounded surprise, or a mixture of the three. I laughed heartily at the sight.

"Miss Blair, while I realize you may not have the social norms we do, I have to ask you to at least cover up in settings where there's underaged children about." Fiona tapped her fingers against the desktop, looking rather irritated. "It's unsanitary for one, all that blood has to be cleaned up by either me or the staff here before someone tracks it all over the place, and for another it's rather unseemly to do this in a _classroom_."

Blair shrugged, doing interesting things to her body, before she poofed into cat form and hopped up to rest on my shoulder. "Mmmm… I suppose. Also, a window's broken in the hallway."

"...I will take that in favor of having an imprint of Spirit's face on the walls or floor."

The cat yawned from her perch carelessly. "Also, this one put me up to it." She tapped me on the shoulder to indicate who she was talking about.

"Well then, Mister Orion, let's see how many times it takes you running into a wall before you adjust to having your senses hijacked." Fiona offered perfectly innocently, except for the smirk edging up one side of her face. "Black Star still has a very disappointing habit of knocking himself out when facing off with me."

"I will state that in my defense, you're training a classroom full of killers. I figured they'd have a bit more self-control, or if they don't, that it's something that really needs to be worked on." I pointed out slowly, equipping my gauntlets and rapidly slotting a pair of vials into them as I spoke.

"They are _teenagers_. Their biology has yet to settle into anything they can reliably exert control over just yet. In a few years more, maybe, but as of right now? When most are barely past the age of fifteen?"

I raised up a finger, before pausing. I considered it, before dropping my hand back down, shrugging. "Yeah, I got nothing except pointing at the world you came from. And Fangirls."

"Naruto-kun's Sexy-no-Jutsu working against the Third."

"That kid was messed up, I have to point out." I gestured around. "Sooo… We doing this here or somewhere else while the kids pull themselves together?"

"Since there's that little _medical_ issue you still have, hell no not here." Fiona sighed out. "Which, really, you _should have recalled_ about fifteen minutes before trying to pick a fight with a student. We'll go see Shinigami-sama. He might enjoy the diversion enough to help you out with that containment issue."

"In my defense, this only barely makes the top five 'weird shit in my life', and I feel mostly fine." I complained as I started walking towards the door, Blair still draped on my shoulder.

Fiona's _HATE_-tainted energy followed along after me. "There is so much I could say to that, but we'd get into another 'I have it worse' fight and I rather am tired of those. So, instead, I must ask. Why did you break a window?"

"After convincing Blair to smash her breasts into Spirit's face, she threw him at me. I reacted and continued the throw. And accidentally threw him out a window. Did you know gravity takes a few seconds to kick in if someone's surprised here?" I asked curiously. "That was kind of cool to see. Justifies a lot of shows I watched."

"You… defenestrated Spirit?" Fiona sounded highly amused. "...that is awesome. And yeah, but remember I have twenty-four years of experience in a world where they could and did stand upside down on most anything if they wanted."

"Eh, he'll be fine. Probably. And I mean yeah, but they couldn't just hang in air for no reason? Aside from Jiraiya getting a good enough height when Tsunade clocked him, anyway." I commented.

"...Ah, I had forgotten about that. The number of times I can recall Natsumi seeing him punched or kicked through a wall or three…"

"... it bugs me, but that name sounds really familiar. I can't recall where, though." I grumbled. "Meh, it's probably not too important. So, ladies first?" I asked as I opened the door to the Death Room.

Fiona looked skeptically at me before walking through the opened portal. "You realize you just basically _begged_ for some deity up there to _make_ it important, right?"

"I mean, it is a way to jog my memory along." I commented. Blair perked up.

"You're… kind of insane. Like, really bad. And maybe reckless." I shrugged.

"We know I'm insane. This is blatantly obvious. At least I'm not bored or boring." The cat seemed to nod before relaxing once again.

"Oh? I have visitors, how wonderful!" Shinigami-sama clapped his massively oversized hands together in an almost-human approximation of glee. Fiona gave the massive pile of paperwork being hastily abandoned a despairing look. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure, Sergeant Hanson? Mister Orion?"

"...well, we need a ref, Shinigami-sama."

"Preventing accidents is important." I commented. "Cause, you know, we all like… There's a lot of stuff I normally say that I actually can't, as one of you is dead and the other is so far beyond human that it isn't even funny."

"Well… I like not having holes in walls?" Fiona offered cheerfully enough for her. "And the lack of mental scarring the children might suffer… oh wait."

"Stein is going to do worse, don't even start." I cut her off. "Blair is mainly teasing, Stein is actually _psychotic_. Speaking of, hey Blair? Might want to get off now." The cat shrugged and hopped onto a conjured pumpkin, floating over to go hover near Lord Death.

"Stein actually _teaches_, even if his methods are… questionable." Dismissed the dead woman as she turned fully to face me. "Besides that, those kids signed up for that. Not you and kitty-lady of near-epicness over there."

"... Kitty-lady of near-epicness?" I snorted. "1. Seriously? 2. Why only near?"

"She lost points for going along with your idea."

The kitty-lady in question spoke up from her pumpkin. "I still think I'm awesome. Anyway, aren't you two supposed to be fighting?"

Fiona nodded a few times. "One, shinobi. I've already started the moment we walked into here."

I blinked. "Oh… I never noticed you do anything. I'm impressed. And also a tad bit worried."

"Natsumi basically tripped over this. And then proceeded to ram the heads of her co-workers, most of whom had been elite black ops agents for at _least_ a good part of a war or two, into various walls and other obstacles at will." Fiona sighed slightly, shifting her weight to one hip and crossing her arms over her chest. "If even Wolf-taicho failed to realize it at first, and Jiraiya-sensei couldn't dispel it without senjutsu, it's wickedly effective of a jutsu. Especially in an assassin's hands."

I nodded slowly. "Soo… All of this seems fairly normal. I'm surprised I'm not, you know, being stabbed a nigh-infinite amount of times in a pool of blood or made to run screaming from some monsters or something like that."

"I'm irritated with you, not pissed off." The dead lady informed me wryly. "In all actuality, we're not actually in the Death Room. By the way."

"Awesome." I grumbled, rolling my shoulders. "Well, let's see… Test one." And with that, I channeled Aura into my gauntlets. More specifically, into the Lightning Dust vials I inserted back in the classroom. Of course, since I'm still a newbie, the electricity would fly everywhere, but that's the point.

The wild blue lightning was first drawn to the dead soldier, who winced as it passed through her and into a large metal contraption existing invisibly behind her. It then arced upwards to two very far points high up the 'Death Room's' walls.

"...tingly." Fiona offered after a moment.

Rather smart of him, since that both distracted her and lit up the bleachers behind her. She kind of wondered what he'd do with that, and what he might pull out next.

"Well, at least it hit _something_." I commented. "And now I know I'm in some kind of very large room with a large metal object, so at least there's that. So, not a complete failure for test one." I also had a rough idea of the dimensions, or at least some of, of the room, so I was less likely to run into a wall. "Did that even hurt you?"

"Again, I'm saying it was tingly." Fiona offered, examining her replica of Lord Death intently and adjusting the mask slightly to be less pointed somehow.

"... Really, you're not even going to pretend that this is reality anymore?" I complained, before shrugging. "Right then. Whatever. Test two." _Kaijin?_

"**Hmm? This is kind of intriguing. I can tell something isn't right, but I can't pierce it. A very curious ability."**

_Right, so if you're done examining, I need you to work with me here? As in, I'm going to light up the room again, and I want you to shoot a needle at the dead-woman._

"**... That's going to hurt. A lot."**

_Yeah, well…_ I gritted my teeth as I felt a _shifting._ "Test two."

Fiona was more than a little curious if Orion could come up with some way to defeat the kinjutsu that Jiraiya or Uchiha Fugaku hadn't thought of. So she didn't move, even when only slightly blunted instincts of a jonin kunoichi screamed at her to do so.

It wasn't like he could kill her, after all.

She was better prepared to deal with the shock of blue energy a second time, but the thin lance of black had her hesitating.

It looked similar to a Nara's shadow, a young one still learning how to manipulate their own shadows for personal defense, that the pain of Medusa's Black Blood Needle impacted her squarely.

The surprise had her lose grip on some of her kinjutsu, which caused a slight ripple effect in her constructed image of the Death Room. Fiona was pretty sure the basketball hoops peeked out a little even with her hasty correction, and she lost the image of Lord Death as well.

I let out a pained grin as the surroundings shifted after Kaijin's needle struck Fiona, the reaper disappearing and a brief flicker of the actual surroundings marking as proof. "Great, so apparently injuring myself won't break, but catching you off-guard will."

"...It's based off a Yin Release Illusion. The normal way of breaking a genjutsu won't work, since it's not really based off you but me." Fiona admitted easily enough. "You lucked into that, but it's a good test nonetheless."

My grin remained steady before turning into a grimace as I rolled my shoulder, feeling the wound closing as my Aura took up the job. Thankfully, only the blood Kaijin wanted out actually left for the attack, so no risk of anemia. "Good to know, though I doubt I'll fight that many Yin users. Right then. Test Three. And I apologize."

_Kaijin?_

"**Hmmmm?"**

_I need to go a little mad. With the good sergeant as the target. Have fun._ And with that I gave in to the Madness of Kaijin, letting her come to front as I battled my own Madness.

Fiona, or rather Natsumi, had been around more than enough crazy people to understand the shift in Orion's behavior.

Stag, for however a wonderfully stalker-ish right hand man he ended up being for Natsumi, wasn't remotely the craziest of the Konohagakure no Sato's ANBU forces.

She did _not_ like that Orion apparently thought that going _insane_ was a proper method of testing new things with. It probably told her something about him, but she was going to think on that later.

Once she got the reckless little twit to Shinigami-sama to snap out of his latest fit.

Being not-really-there, Fiona exercised a little of her ill-used ability of manipulating her not-physical form to dodge the first swipe at her. Basically making herself more _ghost_ than a real person.

Orion sailed right through her. Skidded, then launched himself at her again with those oddly mechanized gauntlets aimed at her face.

"Miss Blair, might I suggest you either make for the actual Death Room or head home? I'm going-" Having a person fly _through_ yourself, even if you weren't physically there, was still an odd sensation. "-to take this knucklehead to Shinigami-sama real quick."

Blair pondered for a moment before floating off towards the exit. "I think I'll go with you. I want to see where this goes, and I'm nimble enough to get out of the way. Plus, I think he's rather focused on you. Maybe we should have waited until he was checked?"

"Who uses _insanity_ as a method of exploring new situations?" Fiona grumbled as the not-really-sane young man made another charge, this time swiping an armored leg through where her head should've been had she been real. One of these times, he was actually going to hook her dog-tags and then she'd end up chained to him. "...not sure how, if I'm going to remain intangible up to the moment I teleport us. Think you can latch onto him without hurting yourself?"

"While I would say yes, normally…" Blair admitted. "I saw him use that needle thing, like the snake-witch from earlier. I'm not entirely sure he wouldn't use it on me if I attempted to subdue him. I could probably just land on his head, so long as I'm not actively interfering. At least, if I understand the Madness from Shinigami-sama somewhat?"

"I haven't a fucking clue. How about this instead?" Fiona preemptively drew off said tags and dropped them to the ground. "I'll teleport him first, and come back for you so we don't risk that idiot attacking you."

"Works for me." Blair cheerfully agreed, poofing into her adult form, fully clothed this time as she shifted on her pumpkin. "I'll help restrain him so you can lecture him."

"Give me five seconds after I snag him." She tossed the magical cat-lady's way, re-solidifying herself just in time to catch a punch aimed at her stomach.

"- GRAH, why do I taste blue!" I roared out after taking a deep breath. I was lying on the ground of… it looked like the Death Room, but I couldn't be too sure. Huh. _Kaijin?_

"**The dead woman teleported you."**

_Well, at least we know one way to snap me out of it… _I made a mental note and looked around, then up. "Hi Reaper Man, how's it going?"

"Not bad, not bad at all. However, I must ask, what _did_ you do to poor Sergeant Hanson? She looked… very irked when she dumped you in here with me." Shinigami-sama asked in return, dredging up more chairs from the space directly under his desk.

I sat up, cracking my neck. "Well, we were testing her illusion against me…" And then I was interrupted by a blur of _blue-purple-red_ and suddenly I was pounced on by a human Blair. After a moment's scuffling she had me in her lap (being taller than me by a couple inches) with my arms bound behind me and her breasts pressing into me. I blinked. "Well, why don't you ask her? Also, really Blair?"

"Yes, really, get over it."

"_YOU!_" Fiona started, pissed off and not particularly concerned by who knew it. "Who the _hell_ uses _insanity_ against an illusion? What the _fucking hell_ did that even tell you?"

"**That I can work through it just fine?"**

"According to one of my Madnesses, that apparently I can operate somewhat well through illusions while insane? Also, I think that's the most I've heard you curse." I commented cheerily. "So, how'd it work?"

"_Poorly._" She snapped. "You did _nothing_ to me, since _I am fucking DEAD_. Since you failed to do anything to me, I could've changed my shape to something like Blair's cat-form and had you _murder half the fucking school_."

I slowly blinked at her. "I'm pretty sure I designated you as a target, and that you're not sociopathic enough to do that."

"And what, exactly, did you base that on? That I teach? I'm such a wonderful fucking example of a person even dead to not have outside motives of my own?" Fiona's tone had shifted to something sickly sweet. "If you would recall… _I'M FUCKING DEMONIC, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"_

"... Oh yeah. I kind of forgot." I pondered that for a moment. "Huh. Whoops. My bad."

Drawing a hand over her face, the ghostly sergeant cracked her neck and turned to the old god. "Shinigami-sama… he needs a freaking keeper. Since, apparently, he really doesn't think things through very much."

"Oi! You pretty much told me that conventional shit wasn't going to work, so I had to get creative!" I protested from my position in Blair's lap. "... Though I will admit to possibly needing a keeper. Because of the whole 'not particularly concerned that I might've slaughtered half the school' thing. Because I'm really not concerned, and I'm about 85 percent sure that's not a good thing."

"No, _really?_" Fiona blew out a sigh, glaring over at me. "You don't say. I figured that out when you thought going bat-shit _insane_ was going to work when you already knew a creative approach was needed. Insanity is _not_ creative. It's actual definition is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. FYI, _attacking a dead woman physically is not going to work._"

"The needle did. Kind of." I offered. "And by creative, I meant more unexpected. It's not like you could expect me to pull what I just did. It's not like anyone would expect someone to go insane at the drop of a hat and start moving in a completely different manner."

Fiona did not look sold on my reasoning whatsoever. "First of all, the Black Blood looks similar to a Nara technique when you used it. I was more surprised than harmed. You could have asked, since I had already given you bits of information before that. And secondly, actually yes. We call those kinds of people psychotic. Do _you want_ to be called a psycho?"

"... Eh, would probably look bad on my resume." I admitted cheerfully, not really concerned. Which in itself should be concerning, now that I think about it. "Also, this conversation doesn't entirely work when I'm still trying to suppress all of the insanity again. Mainly because I find it very difficult to give a damn, due to the third Madness I mentioned before."

"Thus you need a damn keeper." She finished with a firm nod, looking back up to Shinigami-sama. "Sir?"

"...I think… Doctor Oobleck should probably be informed." The old god offered after a moment. "And… forgive me Sergeant Hanson, but could you remain near or around him? You seem to have a method to snap him out of it. If I'm not mistaken, this is the second time you've done it."

"Because tasting colors is so far beyond anything else that it sets my mind into disarray." I offered from my restrained position. Honestly, I was really comfortable. "As my current… persona? Let's go with that. As my current persona is dominant, it more than likely reasserts itself while everything is essentially rebooting. And yeah, informing Oobleck would be smart."

"Class should be out, I'd expect Stein to have dumped him in a nearby teacher's lounge so he could go experiment." Fiona huffed, still irritated but refocusing on something else seemed to lessen it. "Shinigami-sama, may I ask you break another spire of my crystal off? I'd rather keep my tags, and I'm not stripping Sid of his again."

"You are going through these at a very fast rate, Miss Fiona." The old god still drew her now slightly battered soul-rock out of his cloak and poked delicately with his oversized hands. The newly broken spire was picked up by the dead woman.

"I still have the shattered bits, but I have yet to experiment with the range I'll get with them." Fiona glanced from the crystal in hand to me and back again. "Alright, you have a choice. Either I shove this down your throat, or you willingly keep it on you for now."

"Because that's such a great set of options… You are really unconcerned with your soul aren't you? Yeah, just pass it here." I shifted a bit, and then Blair let me go so I could stand up and hold my hand out. "Pretty sure I've got a pocket inside of my jacket that it won't fall out of accidentally."

A set of glyphs flared into life near the shattered end before she handed it over. "In all actuality, I'm fucking _sixty_ years old. Been killed twice. Or once and a half. Don't ask. I should be dead, am dead, and not entirely all that enthused with this still being here shit. What do I care if it shatters quicker than expected?"

I took the shard and shoved it into a pocket near my neck on the inside of the jacket. I had no idea why there was a pocket there, but it was useful. "I can't really say much, being completely deranged for a variety of reasons, so I'm only a bit better off if at all." I pulled up a chair and sat down, Blair plopping down on my lap in human form and leaning against me. I just went with it, Neo did the same thing all the time. "Soooo… Now what?"

"Now… I'm going to go fetch Doctor Oobleck, you can inform him of your stupid idea and why you chose to try it yourself." Fiona quipped cheerfully, all but marching down the guillotine lined path out of the Death Room. "Have fun planning for that conversation."

I watched as she wandered off and hummed to myself. "I feel I've annoyed her. Oh well. Not much to be done now." I shrugged. Blair looked down at me.

"Aren't you at all concerned about having to report yourself as insane to the man technically in charge of you?"

I shook my head. "Not really? My world doesn't use the same illusions, I can just outright ignore illusions of my world. Yeah, I'm insane, but I'm only dangerous if someone is stupid enough to attack me. Otherwise, I'm helpful to a number of people."

"If I may?" The so far mostly ignored God of Death interjected curiously. "Sergeant Hanson did just point out that there is other things you might not be well-suited to ignoring or evading that could be used to turn you against any number of people. Does that not concern you at all?"

"Currently? Nope. I'm still locking up the rest of the Apathy Madness, so no. It probably will, later, but then again, I live with a man who has an epithet of "The Reaper" who actually does outright terrify me, one of the few people or things that do so." I admitted. "Also, there are a LOT of people in my world who can restrain me, I'm not really that strong. Worse comes to worse, I go insane, someone stops me, and then I get dropped into a Grimm nest to see how many I can take with me. Sucks, but life."

"Hmm… I think, until you do care, you should probably avoid situations that might end up… unfortunate for others." Shinigami-sama mused aloud thoughtfully. "I _do_ run a school, not a madhouse Mister Orion. However much Stein might make it seem so. I have a responsibility to the students, you see."

"Fair enough. I'll remain either here or near Fiona for the time being. If Fiona goes off to teach, I'll just have her drop me off here. Maybe we can play chess or something." I offered casually. Blair squirmed in my lap.

"And what am I supposed to do?" I blinked at her.

"Uh, whatever you want to? Like you normally do?" The cat-lady blinked back at me, then shrugged.

"Good point."

"Wonderful. Since Miss Fiona took up Sid's slack with the EAT class, I've been missing my usual chess partner."

I tilted my head curiously. "What, Excalibur doesn't come visit and play? How rude."

"Very. Alas, more than just one old god in an area amplifies the Madness Wavelength we put out. So… in a school I am bound to? Excalibur visiting is a very bad idea."

That… was probably true. My own Madness was made worse upon contact with Shinigami-sama, and the only reason it wasn't worse yet with the introduction of the Black Blood was because Kaijin was helping to actively suppress the other two. Even still, I was more twisted than before, according to my memories now that I had time to sit down and truly think about it. _Huh. We're not actually doing too well on the whole suppression thing._

"**Mmmm… No. I would recommend working with the people who actually know how to deal with a Madness based off of a Great Old One to help with that."**

_Good plan. We'll go with it._

* * *

So, after being dressed down by Oobleck once Fiona had grabbed him and by Fiona again, they both returned to class. They'll probably end up bringing it up again later, but I did point out that I honestly could've cared less at the time, so I'll at least be expecting it. Seriously, trying to lecture me when I'm apathetic to most everything? Like that's going to work.

The day passed by quickly with me playing various board games with Shinigami-sama and Blair, once we roped her in. Surprisingly, the cat-lady was actually really good at strategy games like Risk. When I asked, she merely replied that she telekinetically floated a multitude of objects all at once, so obviously she's good at multitasking, and left it at that. Lord Death, meanwhile, beat me at chess. A lot. I'm fairly sure he was holding back, mainly because he's an ancient being and if he was playing his best the games would've lasted anywhere from 10 to 20 moves. As is, I did manage to win one or two, and the rest did drag on for a fair bit of time.

I ended up sleeping in the Death Room, mainly because we really didn't want to accidentally risk me waking up deranged and possibly attacking Oobleck or whoever else knows. Fortunately, aside from finding out that instead of dreaming I instead chill out with Kaijin in my Black Room, nothing happened. Which was nice, because Lord Death's Death Scythe had arrived at the Academy. Evidently, she had been rushed here, instead of being allowed to take her time. Also arriving today were Sid and Mira with the rescued Chrona, who was… actually they were kind of acting completely out of it, I wasn't sure just how aware of their surroundings they were. Assembled in the Death Room were Shinigami-sama, myself, Fiona, Chrona, and Mira, the last probably to help deal with Chrona. Sid and Stein were off teaching classes, Stein teaching the EAT class because that was where Team CFVY were and Yatsuhashi… still hadn't gotten over the zombie phobia thing quite yet. Spirit was the one to escort his fellow Death Scythe into the room.

The Death Scythe in question was a young blond woman almost as tall as Spirit. Wearing a black long-sleeved dress with yellow pants and a black eyepatch with a thunderbolt insignia inscribed on it, she was rather friendly though self-contained. She stepped up to the old god and curtseyed before him. "Marie Mjolnir, reporting as ordered, Shinigami-sama."

The cloaked figure simply raised a hand. "No need to be so formal, Marie. How has Oceania been?"

Immediately the woman relaxed, slouching in her stance slightly. "It's been very quiet, thankfully. A lot quieter than what you seem to have been up to recently."

"Eh, it's been fairly quiet until I accused Fiona of cheating in Risk." I commented idly from my chair.

Said dead woman sniffed in mock offense. "If you can't keep up, _brat_, then bow out."

I restrained the urge to throw something at her. "I'm sorry, I can excuse the sleight of hand, I had long enough sleeves to do the same, but kinjutsu? Really? Just because Blair was winning?"

"If you're not cheating in the first place, you're not trying hard enough. Besides, in any military operation the goal of the game is to keep as many of your own alive as well as murdering as many of the other's as you can." Fiona batted a hand in dismissal. "Just because your abilities don't lend themselves to cheating as easily doesn't mean you have to be so petty."

I rolled my eyes at her. "No, they lend themselves to being good at pissing people off, being decent at fighting, and apparently surviving whatever life throws at me due to the interference of elder gods. No offense Reaper Man." I added offhandedly.

"Mmm… none taken." The overly cheerful God of Death assured me absently. "By the way, Marie, these two are Staff Sergeant Fiona Hanson and the other is one Mister Orion. They both, ah… require some of your skills, my dear."

I raised a hand in greeting at the blonde Death Scythe. "Heyo. I'm the mad one. She's the dead one. Purple dome over there-" I gestured at Chrona "-is the horribly traumatized and abused one with their blood serving as a demon weapon."

The blonde woman's stance shifted from "relaxed" to "professional". "I suppose then that I'll be starting with the child?"

"We'll live… or not, for a few moments more." Fiona offered to her fellow blonde. "He's next, the idiot seems to think insanity is a good method to test things with."

I shrugged. "Not my brightest of decisions… Eh. I can't do anything stupid now. Or at least, if I do, either you or Reaper Man can smack sense into me."

Marie just stared at the two of us. "Uhm… are you sure that the kid is the worst case here?"

"I'm more or less neutralized. Dead, partially demonic, but not out of control." The dead soldier jerked a thumb at me. "I'm also more or less neutralizing him until you're free. The kid's a kid, we're both fine with waiting."

I shrugged again. "I've apparently been suppressing one Madness for a few months now, another hour or two to suppress two won't do anything permanent. Chrona, on the other hand, is… kind of in a self-locked coma and completely without people skills. Or any skills that don't involve killing. Medusa's… kind of really fucked up as a parent."

"I thought it was three?" Fiona asked in a quiet voice, sounding a little suspicious.

I kept my voice low. "The third one is a non-issue for the moment. Chalk it up to the general insanity that is both my life and is as certifiable as I am."

Marie looked between the two of us before nodding to herself, apparently missing the byplay. "Alright then, Chrona you said his name was?"

"Actually, agender." I corrected. "Medusa… was really fucked up." I meant that in terms of Chrona was like that due to forced abuse, not any personal choice. God I felt sorry for anyone who would have to give the Birds and the Bees to the kid.

Marie blinked once. "Ok then. I'll help them first. This might take a bit." Marie slowly walked forward and bent down to look Chrona in the eye, who didn't react in the slightest. _Huh, must be tuning out all external stimuli at the moment… I feel as if we didn't kill her enough._ She rested her hands on his shoulders, and then began to glow in a soft yellow light, tuning out the rest of us.

I decided to voice my thoughts. "Sooo… after seeing this kid? Anyone else feel like we didn't kill Medusa enough?"

Spirit spoke up, though he was eyeing me warily. "Hate to agree with the insane kid, especially when it comes to harming a woman, but after meeting Chrona, I kind of feel the same."

"Keeping her alive for any torture would've been a logistical nightmare." Fiona put in, entirely unbothered with maybe resurrecting the woman and actually trying it.

"... There is that." I admitted. "Still feel like we killed her too quickly, regardless of the fact that doing otherwise would have been… remarkably bad."

"Situations like this is always bad. But do you think Chrona would _want_ his/her mother about at all once he/she's better?" Shifting a little irritably, the ghost of a dead soldier frowned rather thoughtfully to the fake sky above us. "Hmm… man-she? Where do I recall that term from?"

"Point. And… yeah, I'm just going to leave that alone." I shifted my attention to Marie's glowing form. "Sooo… any idea how long she's gonna be doing that?"

"As long as it takes, Mister Orion." Shinigami-sama whipped another board game out of his baffling cloak. "But, since we've all collectively decided Risk is a bad game to play… how about Monopoly? Death-style?"

"... There's no way I'm convincing you to do your paperwork, so I'm in." Spirit resignedly spoke up.

I raised a hand. "I'm in. I'm fairly sure I'll be better than the perv who wastes his time and money at a gentleman's club rather than his daughter."

Fiona scowled at me, mostly fake but with a little annoyance still. "Some of those girls are very nice, mind you. Despite them _having_ to deal with Mr. Creepy Pervert over there, I'm all for them robbing his ass blind."

"And I'll freely admit that they probably are nice people." I agreed. "It's just that a man with a teenage daughter really shouldn't be frequenting those kinds of places, especially since he really hasn't gotten over his last relationship and thus is burdened by guilt every time he looks at another woman."

Spirit, at this point, was sinking into the floor from the weight of the water raining down on him from his gloom cloud. _Wow, didn't know those got that bad…_

"So long as you weren't knocking those girls up. The gossip they share with me is _fantastic_." Fiona finally stopped leaning up against Shinigami-sama's desk. "I'm in then, sir. Sounds more fun than staring at Miss Mjolnir's back for however long this will take."

* * *

The sounds of motion and crying distracted us from our board game (well, us being myself, Fiona, and Shinigami-sama, because we shut down Spirit rapidly and thus he was working on paperwork), and directing our attention to the noise. Marie had engulfed Chrona in a hug, the young child bawling their eyes out at someone showing them affection and trying to help for once. I looked over at Reaper Man. "So… Think Marie can adopt the kid? Should help everyone involved."

Shinigami-sama glanced over to the pair thoughtfully, straightening out the cards that represented his monopoly on the rail lines of the game in his oversized hand. "Hmmm… can, should, will… It's possible, but something that should be left up to them to decide. I would have no objections if Marie would like to start her family early."

I nodded. "I agree that they should decide. Was merely asking if it was feasible." Slowly, Chrona was starting to go quiet, though still shaking in Marie's embrace. "Any chance the hate-demon-dead lady wants to go next for healing? She's been having her issues longer, after all."

"Dead-demon-lady isn't reckless." Said woman answered for herself, rather sharply. "I've been like this for months, it's not likely to change in a fast hurry Mr _let's-go-insane-to-test-things_."

"Eh, thought not." I placed the money I had collected down onto the middle of the board. "Whoo, free parking. Have fun." With that I wandered over to Marie and Chrona, the former of whom managing to guide the latter to sit in a chair. "So, feeling any better kiddo?"

With a quiet noise of surprise, the purple haired child of indeterminate gender _moved_, ending up hiding underneath the chair in a fetal position. I blinked down at them before casting a glance at Marie, who shrugged. "They're not in a coma. Everything else is a work in progress."

"... You know, that honestly makes sense." I admit, tilting my head to the side while thinking. "Psychological issues don't go away with magic… At least as far as I know."

"No, they don't. Magic just helps." Marie cheerfully agreed, resting her hands on my shoulders. "So. Your turn?"

"I guess? So, is there like a process or preparation for people who are conscious or…" I trailed off as her hands lit up with a warm glow. _Huh, comforting. Very comforting… Wait, don't I still-_

* * *

"Wow…. Interesting choice of decor? You know, most people's souls aren't this detailed." Marie's voice held a tone of bemusement. "Or, you know, detailed at all, really. They tend to be kind of… blank landscaping, to be honest. Also, nice suit."

"We established I'm not most people." I pointed out calmly, firmly keeping my eyes shut. "Also, I think there was a bit in Medusa's reports that the Black Blood has odd effects on people's inner worlds? Why didn't you encounter this with Chrona?"

"I think Ragnarok is self-developed enough to warrant his own soulscape, thus separating a large amount of the Black Blood's effects from Chrona's soul." Marie pondered aloud. "Something I'll look into later. During the rest of their… more than likely years long if not lifelong counseling sessions!" Marie's voice was still cheery. "Why are your eyes closed?"

"Because people tend to end up without clothes whenever they visit my soul. At least last time they did. Also, I remembered that I had a shard of Fiona's soul right next to my damn skin when you did this, and I'm merely waiting for her to speak up." My voice was flat as I spoke.

"Just to blow your mind… I'm actually naked all the damn time. Where do you _think_ my uniform comes from?" Fiona poked the back of my head once. "Also? The decor is very… emo punk-rock. Is that supposed to mean something?"

"... Huh. Didn't think about that. Thanks ever so much for that mental image Fiona." I drawled. "And fuck if I know, I didn't pick it."

"Right… well, I have to go get Shinigami-sama to pay up on the death-hotel he landed on, leave me out of your soul-searching."

Then a third female voice spoke up, vastly irritated. "And where exactly is the apology for ALMOST KILLING ME?" _Kaijin. Whoops, knew I forgot something…_

"...and you are?" Fiona asked suspiciously.

"So, hey, Fiona, you remember when I mentioned that the third Madness was a non-issue?" I piped up warily, opening my eyes and edging away from where the sergeant was. "Yeah, she would be why. Kind of."

"I'm fairly sure I didn't try to kill you." She slitted a still suspicious glance to the naga in the room. "Or her. I think I'd recall that."

"Oh, not you specifically." Kaijin near-_hissed_ at the dead woman. "More so the hate-fox thing in you that tried to _eat me_ when you last cut me with that sword of yours."

"_Oh… really?_" Fiona _purred_ back, a rather nasty smirk on her lips. "The only one _I_ cut with my sword was _Medusa_, little snake. And if you are part of that _bitch_, you're never getting an apology from me. Just be thankful you're still… _alive._"

Marie piped up, also edging away from the two very… _vexed_, non-human females. "Ah, so, I'm a bit lost…"

I sighed. "Story time, made short. Medusa infected herself with her creation before we all tried to kill her. Black Blood tends to manifest as an appropriate youkai to the personality of the infected. Kaijin here was Medusa's, who then went to me when I got infected, and instead of turning into something else as would be appropriate, Kaijin retained her… let's call it personality, due to inheriting a survival instinct from Medusa." I then rolled my eyes, gesturing with a hand to cause a bookshelf to pop up between Kaijin and Fiona. "Let's not fight in my soul? I would appreciate you not killing the representation of my third Madness."

"A bookshelf? Really?" Fiona tapped the case with a nail, then shrugged. "I was leaving anyways…"

"What, you don't want to help come to grips with myself?" I asked sarcastically. "Or find out why, exactly, I'm preventing you from killing the last bit of Medusa in this specific dimension?"

"It's _your_ soul. What do I care, as long as you are aware it gets free… I'm killing the _both_ of you."

"Eh, I'm far more likely to go completely _loco_ first. Seriously, Kaijin is why I'm still… somewhat, sane, along with my own capability in suppressing my madness." I shrugged. "And yes, a bookshelf. Surprisingly stable when made of bits of soul. And memories." I waved an indication to the many books on said bookshelf.

"The fact you think suppression is a valid method of dealing with things is so horribly wrong… that I refuse to comment." Fiona eyed the bookcase. "And secondly…"

She took a step, and stood sideways on it.

"Seriously not much use for anything but ambushing things in your soul."

"Which may or may not come in handy, 'cause one of my madness was caused by what is essentially an eldritch horror made manifest into reality. Sooo… who knows what all is in here." I pointed out carefully. Marie raised a hand.

"Eldritch horror? That doesn't sound good. Or safe. Or anyway sane or normal, by the by how are you still functioning?" By the end of her questioning she was studying me in clear concern in her one visible eye.

"Don't care, Shinigami-sama owes me fake money and the longer this goes on the better he's going to be in weaseling out of it." Fiona made a dismissive gesture, and with another suspicious look around flared a bright _blue-purple-red_ and vanished.

"... Well, she was helpful." I commented sarcastically before causing the bookshelf to vanish, snapping my fingers to get Kaijin's attention from glaring at the spot Fiona once stood at. "So, as the local resident of my soul, where the hell is my Madness?"

The naga lady shrugged her shoulders, slithering forwards. "Well, the Madness you got from interacting with The Old One I have locked up myself, it's in one of the many rooms here. That was still a really stupid idea, by the way."

"I blame my other Madness for that, just to point out."

"Wait, you listened to Shinigami-sama's madness wavelength? Directly?" Marie spoke up, standing up straight and looking me in the eye. "What in the world convinced you that was at all a good idea?"

"... I needed a convincing excuse to lure Medusa into Shinigami-sama's room that wouldn't physically impair me for a long period of time?" I defended somewhat weakly, feeling guilty at the concerned stare I was receiving. "I freely and willingly admit that that wasn't my brightest of ideas."

I was lightly bopped on the head by a glowing hand. "Don't do that. Ever. Bad."

I bowed my head in acquiescence. "Yes Ma'am… Anyway, Kaijin! Madness! Where? And what do you mean rooms?"

Kaijin gestured at the many doors. "This isn't the extent of your soulscape. Think of it more as an entrance area. These doors lead to various hallways which in turn contain a variety of rooms that hold different sections of your memories. It's actually surprisingly vast in here. I have a room all to myself I'll sleep in when I'm tired, and it's filled with memories of my own. Your Madness of Apathy is in one of the rooms as well, along with the Madness of Order I have bound and suppressed elsewhere."

I blinked. "Huh. Cool. I have a training area somewhere or something or…" At Marie's _look_, I shrugged. "You know what, we'll look into that some other time. If you could lead the way please Kaijin?"

And with that we set off. The decor of the… I'm going to call it mansion of my soul, was still the same, a lot of black and red with brass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The doors appearances were the odd thing in the surroundings, looking different according to whatever the contents of the room behind the door was. When asked, Kaijin admitted that her own door had various snakes inscribed into the wood, while the one with my Order Madness locked up inside was covered in black blood so it was impossible to tell what the door looked like.

Finally, we reached a door that was just… blank. Purely average, nothing special about it, just a plain door. _Actually, come to think of it, fitting…_

"Well, here we are. The door leading to your Madness of Apathy." Kaijin stated as she slithered to a halt. "I'm not going in there, too much risk of something happening to me. I'll just head back to the lobby area while you two deal with whatever is behind the door."

"Yeah, something bad happening to you would end with me being even MORE insane, not something I want to deal with." I commented, cracking my neck side to side.

Marie cheerfully waved as the naga turned and slithered back down the corridor. "Bye Miss Kaijin! Thanks for the help!" Nothing gets to her, does it?

Once Kaijin was out of sight, I turned back to the door. "Ok, so shouldn't be too bad. I mean, it's a Madness of _apathy_. It's not like it'll try and attack us or have anything set up to slow us down or anything, right?"

* * *

"I stand corrected. I stand _horribly_ corrected, and I apologize for dragging you into this by daring the universe Marie." I commented blandly to the glowing woman at my side.

"No no, it's fine. I mean, you were right, we really couldn't have expected, you know, _this._" She replied, sweeping a hand out.

What was she indicating? Well, that would be the two giant centaur-like monsters standing in front of a locked gate on the other side of the somehow massively expansive ballroom that was behind the plain door. Hanging above us was a giant chandelier that seemed far more ominous than the ones we passed before.

"... Ok, seriously, what the fuck? Why is this here? This makes no sense at all." I complained, only to blink as I felt something lightly land on my head. I reached up in confusion and pulled down a note.

_**Because I desire to be entertained. Get over it. Now go fight the monsters, because I'm bored as hell, and you're the only visitor I've had… ever.**_

_**-Your Apathy**_

I felt my eye start twitching in annoyance as I passed the note to Marie. "... I regret being an asshole to multiple people some days."

"... Penance is a thing?" Marie offered sheepishly. "I mean hey, look at the bright side. At least you can tell Fiona you told her so."

"... I am now less pissed off. Thanks Marie!" I hugged her with one arm brightly. "But seriously, two giant monsters? Really?"

I felt another note land on my head that I reached up and grabbed.

_**You have a point. And it would be more entertaining with more players… So I casually flared up your Aura to get other people's attention, so we should be seeing something happen in about three, two, one…**_

Three knuckles impacted the back of my head. "I was _almost winning! _What the hell is so…"

Fiona trailed off, flatly eyeing the centaur-like creatures on the other side of the ballroom.

"So, just real quick? I told you so." I told her, rubbing the back of my head, before offering the pair of notes to her. "Also, here."

"You _told me_ what?" Snatching the notes, the dead-demon lady eyed the message and flicked through both of them. "What the hell do you think a _bookcase_ would do against them?"

"Oh, not that, just the eldritch horrors that exist in my head thing. As for the bookcase thing…" I paused, tilted my head. "Huh, did it remember to…" A sudden loud roaring from the monsters was heard as I pumped a fist in celebration. "Hah! Just smashed a pair of bookshelves into them from below!"

"One, this is your _soul_. If you think it's nasty and wretched, it is. Secondly… to do what?" Fiona eyed the far monsters skeptically. "Hamstring them? They're jumping over your bookcases."

"Oh yeah, no, they're totally going to be immune to any environment bending bullshit hax I try, they're spawned from a part of me that wants to see a fight, any real damage will have to be done the old fashioned way." I commented. "Ah, real quick also? They seem vaguely familiar to you? Cause they do to me… Like old video game…"

She glanced at me, back to the centaur-monsters, and back. "Erm… if pressed… I'd say Legend of Mana? I was a _really_ big fan of the game when I was a kid… And the one on the left looks a bit like Larc's nasty side."

I snapped my fingers. "Legend of Mana, that's it! Good times, good times." I blinked. "Oh right, fighting."

"One thing?" Fiona called out, glancing first to Marie then to me. "Erm… I'm _all_ soul. If I cut up something either made from or part of your soul…"

"... Right, that would be bad…" I trailed off as suddenly a weapons rack shot up from the ballroom floor. "That'll work. I recognize a lot of these… Wow, in hindsight I was REALLY a hardcore gamer, damn."

Reaching over, the dead woman picked up a seven foot no-daichi once used by a silver haired General and swung it experimentally. "I'd say something… but… this is an _awesome_ sword."

Marie also reached out and grabbed a wicked looking black hammer from the rack and swinging it experimentally. "This is all very weird… But hey, I'll go with it. What's with the shiny orbs in a few of the weapons and that sword Sergeant Hanson picked up?"

"...I have Materia. This is officially even more awesome." Fiona poked the semi-glowing balls of green and yellow in the hilt, then snatched a red one from a over-sized shuriken. "And we're murdering things now."

The rack sank back down into the floor, and I shrugged as I felt my own personal weapons, Caestus and Opug, form on my limbs. Reaching a hand out, I concentrated and smiled brightly as a dual-sided halberd with overly large blades formed. I twirled it around myself experimentally. "Right then. Am I forgiven for dragging you into the fight?"

"Depends on if they're any good, otherwise you're getting Masamune shoved in a very uncomfortable orifice." Hefting the named blade again, Fiona stared first at the green Materia then pointed her sword point at the Larc-rage centaur. "Let's see if this works… _Blizzaga!_"

**-Cue Legend of Mana: Darkness Nova-**

Three massive crystals of pure ice formed overhead, then were hurled at the leftmost monster, the one that was presumably Larc. It didn't sit there, drawing back both massive fists to shatter two of the three projectiles of ice. The third one smacked into it harshly, all four hooves trying and failing to find purchase on the ballroom floor as it hit head-on. The whole time, some _very_ nostalgic music was playing in the background of the ballroom.

"I forgot how powerful tier 3 magic was. Also, _damn_ but I missed this music." Orion commented idly before shrugging and gesturing, causing the floor beneath him to rise up and catapult him into the air, launching the madman at the Iron Centaur. "LET'S DO THIS!" With a shout he swung an overhead blow at the beast that it blocked with it's own axe, pushing it back a little. Orion grinned as the axe was being pushed back towards it, before paling as the end of it shifted. "Oh, what the fu-"

Fiona abused Minato's hirashin, teleporting from the far end of the ballroom to Larc's rump, lifting then swinging the massive length of steel masquerading as a sword downwards in an attempt to cleave the monster's head in two. It didn't work, but left a nasty gash on the back of Larc's boney helm. Wrenching the blade free, Fiona had to bail off the monster as it reared up and started kicking.

Marie was not idle. Even as Orion was launched by the floor towards the beasts, she herself rushed forward at the young man's target, hammer held in one hand as she ran. She winced slightly at the sound of gunshots, but as Orion was blown away she didn't see any blood, so didn't worry too much. Getting close, she gripped the hammer in both of her hands and _swung_, a heavy blow smashing into the beast's front right knee joint. It roared in pain, swinging a two-handed blow down at the blonde woman that she had to dodge roll from.

In free-fall, assisted by a _really heavy_ sword dragging her down, Fiona wasn't positioned to continue attacking Larc. He was also trying to use his foreleg chainguns to put holes in her, so she hit the ground and darted under Iron's legs instead. While Marie was kneecapping the beast, she swung her blade against the rear leg wires in order to hamstring the thing, pushing in to be sure she did something against the undead mechanical thing.

Meanwhile, Orion dragged himself up to stand with a groan. "Why the fuck do medieval based monsters have MACHINE GUNS?" He roared to the… heavens would be the normal word, but given the situation, let's just say ceiling. "Nope, nope, fuck this. They want guns? Fine." Dismissing his axe, because he could just summon it back whenever, he held both hands up and shouldered a massive beast of a gun, practically a cannon. Carefully, he pointed it at Larc, pulling down on the trigger as a red laser-sight lit up on it's torso. After a few seconds, he roared, firing a large red laser beam from the weapon. "SMILE, YOU SON OF A-"

Sadly, Orion was aiming as Larc was still rearing back, and then fired when he went back down on all legs. So instead of taking a good chunk out of his torso, Orion mainly clipped Larc's left shoulder, taking a good chunk out of it and pissing it off even more. "Oh, come on!"

"_One, SAY FIRE IN THE HOLE, ASSHOLE!_" Fiona barked out, scrambling away from Larc's hooves. "_SECONDLY… _is that a cannon in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

With a chakra assisted leap, and a handhold on some badly shattered armor plates, the dead woman hauled herself up to point her sword in Larc's face. "Let's see how this works… _Leviathan!_"

"One, I WILL FIRE THIS THING AT YOU WOMAN, NO PERVERSIONS AGAINST THE GIANT ELDRITCH HORRORS. Secondly, WHY ARE YOU SUMMONING IN CQC?!"

"_...shit._" A tidal wave cut off anything else Fiona would've said, smashing into both her and the monstrosity she was holding onto. The wave continued, knocking Larc into Iron and throwing them both to the ground with a teeth-jarring thud.

"Well," Fiona spoke up from behind Orion, releasing a soaked Marie and shaking the water out of her short blonde hair, "that was fun."

"Uhm, guys? They're getting up." Marie commented worriedly as the beasts staggered to their hooves, obviously worse for the wear but still going fairly strong. Orion grumbled under his breath as he threw the cannon in his hands at Fiona, mollified somewhat as Iron fell back to the ground with a splash.

"Well, at least Iron's having issues." He stated, before cursing violently as what seemed like _blood_ flowed from Larc into Iron, swirling and seeping into Iron's wounded knee and hindlegs. "Seriously?! I KNOW THAT WASN'T CANON, YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"

Having dropped Masamune because holding two oversized weapons was beyond the ability of her first gut instinct when things were tossed at her, Fiona first eyed the cannon in her arms, the seven foot sword now lying on the ground, and then Orion. "The hell am I to do with this?"

Orion blinked at her. "Hold down the trigger for four seconds, teleport and shoot them in the face because there's a five second charge time and that thing is anti-tank and… Honestly, pretty much anti-everything."

"Huh…" Pointing the thing in the general direction of both Larc and Iron, Fiona blinked some leftover water out of her eyes and eyed both of the centaurs. "Which one first?"

Marie raised a hand. "I vote you shoot the demonic flesh beast one with all the blood that's fixing it's companion as we speak."

"...point. Alrighty, in five… four… three… two…" Next second, Fiona teleported just in front of Larc's helm of bone. Leveling the cannon in her hands to discharge straight into the right eye hole. "...ONE!"

The sound of the Spartan Laser going off was quite loud, discharging and… honestly obliterating the head of Larc. Orion blinked. "I'm going to admit it. I was kind of bullshitting, so I didn't think that would work."

Marie stared at him. "So why did you throw the gun at her then?"

Orion sheepishly chuckled. "Immense frustration? Hey on the bright side, my off the cuff bullshit worked didn't it?" As the madman spoke, the corpse dropped to its knees.

Fiona teleported right back to the same position she left, landing a bit heavily due to inertia from free-falling, blinking rapidly. "I think there's spots in my eyes."

"... Wait, how does that even work, isn't your biology just 'whatever the hell I think is correct'? Why don't you just make it so you're not seeing spots?" Orion asked curiously, staring at the dead soldier.

"...because I didn't think of that, okay?" Fiona screwed both eyes shut, then snapped them open again. "...much better."

Hefting the cannon again, she aimed at the only moving monster. "Round two…"

*_Click*_

"...that doesn't sound right…"

Orion blinked in confusion at the weapon. "That's the sound it makes when it's empty."

Fiona stared at him, then sighed. "Eh, would've been too easy anyways. Where's my sword?"

Orion pointed at the blade in the ground, then blinked at the monsters, specifically Iron that was stepping closer to the corpse of Larc. "What is it… OH WHAT THE FUCK, THIS ISN'T EVEN FUNNY ANY MORE YOU ASSHOLE!"

"..._welll_… actually," Fiona drawled out as she pulled the massive blade free of the floor," you're reactions are probably causing it. I mean, this _is_ the most emotion I've seen out of you since you 'went mad' after all."

"All my apathy is with him, and he started merging the two boss level monsters before I said anything." Orion stated in a deadpan, pointing at the macabre horror show that was armor, bone, flesh, and blood mixing together and slowly coalescing into a new beast.

Tapping the seven feet of steel against one shoulder, the dead woman gave him a measured look. "And he's part of you, right? So on some level, you think this is funny. What would make it less so?"

"Nope." Orion threw his hands up. "Nope. I'm not having this conversation, and this ends now." Slowly but steadily, he began to grow larger. "Hack time, I'm turning into a giant and I'm going to go punch it."

"...If you could do that, then why did we just try to knock the both of them down with weapons made from your soul?" Fiona inspected the blade she had, gave Orion's massive back a pointed look, then shrugged and reseated the blade back into the ground. "...meh. Still an awesome blade for how impractical it is."

"Well, for one thing, because all of this is being stored in my memory and I can watch it later. Good times." Orion shrugged. "Also, because you just looked so excited to play with Masamune. Like a kid with a new toy."

"I… or rather _Natsumi_, are _kenjutsu experts._ We use _swords_, and we _like_ playing with swords." Fiona shot at his back loudly. "I am _not_ passing up an opportunity to use a damn near _legendary sword_ for any fucking reason_._"

"... I'm going to save that "likes playing with swords" comment for later." Orion mused, before shrugging as he finished swelling. "Also, as your body is pretty much up to your whims, you could've just imagined yourself as a giant and then hit it with a water bullet."

"The water bullet would've still been me attacking _your_ soul with my own, idiot!"

"Point, _buuuut_ you're _military_, I know you know combatives!"

"I refuse to fuck with my form. Who knows what I'll look like if I got too comfortable in a different one?"

"Uhm, guys?" Marie piped up. "The monster finished transforming."

Orion blinked down at her. "Oh. Cool. Thanks. Now, to rip off yet another video game…" He ran forward, cocking his fist back as it caught on fire. "Falcon…. PUUUUNNCCCHHH!"

"Captain Falcon? Really? I only know him due to Super Smash Brothers…"

The flaming punch caught the newly formed monstrosity (now named Iron Larc because reasons( IE we the authors can)) in the head, sending it stumbling back, it's face alight. It roared and swung its axe at Orion, catching him in the chest and sending the newly made giant back a step as his Aura tanked the hit. With a shout, Orion made to move forward…

And then he paused. "Wait, no, fuck this." Orion jumped in the air, dropkicked the centaur in the face, and then fired the shotguns he had on his legs. Flipping backward from the recoil, he watched with satisfaction as the newly made corpse dropped to the ground. "Welp, I do believe we're done here. Anyone injured?"

**-End Music (sadly)-**

"Injured? We're in a _soul._ One of which owns it, the other of which is nothing but, and the last one is the supposed healer." Fiona pointed out blandly.

I shrugged as I started shrinking in size. "Force of habit, sorry. Now, you like playing with swords? Seriously? And what was with that pocket cannon comment?"

"Even before Natsumi got the Super Pervert for a jonin-sensei, we liked making perverted jokes." She answered casually. "And yes, before I died and lost a body I _really_ liked playing with swords. In _both_ meanings of the term."

"Huh. Honey pot assassin. Ok then." I shrugged before pausing. "Ok, now I'm morbidly curious. What's stopping you now?"

"We _never_ took honey pot missions. Natsumi was engaged before she hit fourteen, and she had enough honor to _not_ cheat on Shikaku." Snapped the dead woman, who paused and seemed to review what she had just said. "Erm… I mean… fuck. Sorry. Not my emotions there."

"It's good. Shikaku is vaguely familiar… Someone's dad? And also, back to the second question, because I am now curious."

Fiona raked a hand through her short hair. "Shikaku? Nara Shikaku, Shikamaru's father. Natsumi was basically Minato's sister-by-almost-legal-adoption. So… _technically_… my son-in-law? It's really fucked up how that twisted family tree joke went. It spread to _Suna_ before anyone really realized what was going on."

I blinked. Blinked again as I ran those words through my head. _Why does… oh holy shit. No fucking way._ "... By any chance? This Natsumi Nara… was she part of the Hatake clan?"

"Yeah, it's how it started. Sakumo-taicho taught Natsumi kenjutsu, so when little Kakashi-chan had some difficulty with the Shinobi Academy, she stepped in as the senior Hatake kunoichi of the clan in Eri-kaa-sama's place as taicho's sort-of-technically-daughter. Civilian, so Eri-kaa-sama hadn't the foggiest _what_ to do when little Kashi-chan was getting what amounted to _death threats_ for… wait." Fiona blinked rapidly, refocusing on me. "...how the hell do you know that? That was so far off canon it's not even funny."

I chuckled sheepishly. "So, yeah, you remember how I mentioned I hated canon but really enjoyed fanfiction?"

"Fanfiction… would… be... " A few more owlish blinks, and it seemed as if the dead lady had finally put the pieces together by the blood vessel ticking away in her temples. "...you had BETTER BE _SHITTING ME!_"

I began to edge away from the very ticked off dead lady. "Uhm… Yeah, so, I uh… Look, it was one of my favorite fanfictions of all time before I ended up in the RWBY-verse, it was great, Minato and Kushina were just so sappy together, so were Natsumi and Shika, uh…" I raised my hands in surrender cautiously. "I'm just… going to shut up now."

"...I'm… going to go… do something elsewhere." Fiona forced out in a remarkably even tone, through gritted teeth. "We're talking about this later. If it's fanfiction, you know the end then don't you?"

"Yes, kind of, there's a lot of future holes for canon to deal with…" I racked my brain rapidly. "Uh, Minato and Kushina lived, so did Natsumi, and Naruto has the other half of fuzzy hate demon?"

"Of _course_ he does, I was _THERE THAT NIGHT._" She drew a hand down her face, glancing once to the baffled Marie. "Later. We're talking about this _later._ Go deal with your personification of Madness."

"I'll… just be heading to do that… But hey, if it makes you feel any better?" I spoke up as she was still there and decided to try. "Minato inscribed your name on the stone. Yours, not Natsumi's."

"...of _course_ he did, optimistic little _fool._" Rapidly blinking, Fiona made a dismissive gesture and turned on her heel. "Later. You have things to be doing."

A flare of _blue-purple-red_ later, and the dead woman was gone.

There was silence in the ballroom for a moment. Then…

"So… What is fan-"

"I'm not going to answer that, do _not_ ask, you do _not_ want to know. Let's just… Let's just go get this dealt with okay?"

"Sure."

* * *

I blinked rapidly as the glowing died down, shaking my head a bit. Huh, mental representation of myself felt sooo much lighter… I blame me hacking my own personal reality. Oh well. I turned my attention to Shinigami-sama, bowing to him.

"I… wish to apologize for my actions over the past day. I may not have been in my right mind, but that doesn't excuse them. My most sincere apologies, Shinigami-sama, to both you and your Academy."

"...mmhmm… Since you're being honest, I must admit although interesting it _was_ my fault you had the issue at all." Shinigami-sama mused aloud. "So… I think we're both forgiven, yes?"

I straightened up and sighed thankfully. "I'll agree to that. So, yeah, your Madness is dealt with, the other Madness I picked up I came to an agreement with, thanks to Marie's help-"

"Wait." Stein suddenly loomed over my shoulder. "I thought there was only _one_ Madness involved."

"What the fu- get out of my personal space before I eviscerate you!" I yelled at the suddenly appearing meister, my gauntlets immediately enveloping my hands.

The stitched man merely cranked his head screw a few times, staring at me hard. "...boo."

I got my breathing under control before glaring at the man, flipping him off. "I will electrocute you. Anyway, I had two. One from Reaper Man because he's an eldritch horror made manifest upon reality that _doesn't_ want to murder us all, unlike most, and one from whatever jackass being tossed me into this whole mess."

Shinigami-sama clapped his wildly oversized hands together, attracting the attention of everyone in the Death Room. "And moving on… what, exactly, did you say to Sergeant Hanson?"

I blinked, then looked around, noting her absence. I slumped slightly, immediately growing somber. "... Sorry Reaper Man, but that's between me and her until she says otherwise. Let's leave it at I know her from somewhere."

"So…" Spirit drawled out. "Since we're missing the last one Marie was supposed to 'heal'... now what?"

At the mention of people being healed, I blinked. "Ah, speaking of, where's Chrona?"

"I believe that young Chrona is currently huddled under my desk." The Old One commented neutrally, waving a hand in said direction. "Since we seem to be at a natural pause… reconvene in a few hours to finish up?"

As Marie hurried over to go help with Chrona, I shrugged. "Why not. I'm going to go find something to drink… Oi! Spirit! Where the hell is that club of yours?"

Grumbling under his breath for a moment, the Death Scythe glowered at me. "Do you _really_ think I'm going to lead you to the one place I have to escape to? I don't want any tagalongs, or anyone cramping my style."

"For one, I have a list of various drink mixes I'm sure you haven't tried yet." I spoke as I pulled out my comment and began going through my scroll. "For two… This is one of several lady friends I have back home. I'm sure I can serve as an effective wingman." So saying, I brought up a… less nosebleed-inducing photo of Neo, though still fairly risque, and showed it to him.

Spirit twitched once, and clapped a hand over his nose before something suspiciously red and copper smelling started leaking. "...oh."

"Yeah, so…" I drawled, closing the photo and stowing my scroll away. "I need a drink. You know where the club is and could do with a wingman that won't dissect you or your partner."

Spirit slid a look at Stein, who was still creepily staring at me. He slid away from his former partner. "Point… SO! Onward to the bar!"

The Death Scythe dramatically pointed… at a window.

"Once we leave this room, I mean."

I grabbed the perverted failure of a father and started dragging him to the entrance. "Yes yes, let's go, hurry up before Stein thinks of something to come along, move move gogogogo!" At my last words I had dragged him into a run out of the room.

"_..._you boys have fun then!" Marie called out cheerfully, hoisting the shivering Chrona into a fireman's carry. "Stein, care to lead me to the medical wing and provide a set of hands?"

"Attached or not?" Stein questioned faintly as Spirit and I booked it down the guillotine path leading out of the Death Room.

* * *

"So, I just have to say, this is incredibly cliche." I commented neutrally as I walked through the iron gate entrance of the graveyard, my eyes set on a certain figure in it. "A ghost in a graveyard? Seriously?"

"Do you know a better place for her to blow off some steam?" Sid commented equally as blandly from aside the hanging tree he was leaning up against. "Because… as powerful as that lady is, I'd rather her lose it here than in the city."

"Doesn't that apply to every three-star meister Sid?" I asked walking up to him while watching Fiona vent. "Hell, I think that applies to a fair few people in my own world." I offered him a coffee, another in my hands to give to Fiona whenever she was done beating up her shadow clones.

The zombie teacher took it, but opted to stare at it instead of take a sip. "Honestly? We take missions if things get that bad. Travel, a target to not feel bad about whaling on, and maybe some sightseeing after we're done. She doesn't have that option."

I flopped on the ground next to him, delicately setting the coffee next to me as I drew a bottle of soda out of my pocket. "Mmm… I think that's what most Huntsman do. An acquaintance of mine prefers sex, but she's not fully sane, so I doubt she counts. How much longer you figure?"

"We used to do this back when things were still new and Fiona hadn't quite adjusted yet. I'd say… she'd stopped spamming the clones around the time you showed up and is about done skewering them about…. Now."

I watched as the dead woman _flashed_ and appeared behind her last clone, blade sliding into… heart would be the general term, but she's lacking the whole squishy organs sooo… Clone went poof. "Is it even possible for her to accidentally hurt herself like this?"

"Not as far as I've seen." Sid casually offered, peeling the lid off his coffee. "I'm going to head back now, fix whatever the hell you did. Please."

"No promises, but I'll try my best." I told the zombie-man, fishing a bottle opener out of yet another pocket and opening my drink.

Fiona eyed her blade, which wasn't really even a blade but another part of her, before just letting it go and turning on a booted heel to almost march to us. She gave Sid a nod, but almost _glared_ at me. "So…"

"Ah… I'm out of here. If you want to tell me later you can, but unless you want to I don't have to know." Sid interjected before she could say much of anything, pushing off the tree and striding off to the gates. "That's just the man I was."

"So…" Fiona continued pointedly as the zombie-man headed out. "...what the ever loving _fuck_ happened after I was gone?"

I shrugged, inclining my head towards her coffee. "Specify please? My memory isn't eidetic, and questions help me remember." I took a drink from my soda, moving to lean against the tree. "Kind of man he was… Man he still is, Sid is one of the good guys."

"He is... " Fiona frowned down at her coffee, and at least sat down instead of tower over me like a stitched meister that was not to be named. "More specifically, Minato, Kushina, Naruto, and Nagato survived, right? I mean, I _knew_ handling one half of Kurama would help, but did… how… did everything turn out alright?"

I sipped from my drink, thinking back. "Like I said, they all lived. Naruto had the other half of Kurama sealed up, thankfully without the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, and the only other mark left was Natsumi's eyes changed color, she lost the extra spirit IE you and thus her kinjutsu, and Tsunade slapped her with a ban to _try_ and prevent her from getting in over her head. Honestly speaking, I think Natsumi was extremely high A-rank, but not an S-rank kunoichi."

"Some of that classification relied on political power. Had it ever been widely known she was the ANBU General, she would've been S-rank. But yeah… fuck. That kinjutsu was pretty much Natsumi's ace in the hole." Fiona wearily rubbed her face, picking up her coffee. "Why in hell would losing me fuck with Natsumi's eye, though?"

"If I remember correctly, she knew she'd lose that ace at some point anyway, so it didn't hamper her too bad to lose it." I commented. "Don't beat yourself up over that, it was going to happen no matter what. As for the eye thing… logic. What color are your eyes, what colors were hers, and what colors were her mother's?"

"...mine are green. Natsumi's was green and blue, and her mother's was… blue and yellow. Shikamaru-chan inherited them." Fiona listed off, then touched the eye in question and started laughing. Slightly hysterically, but laughing. "Oh… Komushi, you little _genius._"

I chuckled. "Well, you had to watch from somewhere, right Fiona?" I sipped from my drink again. "Anyway, Natsu had another kid-"

"Wait, what?" Almost spilling her coffee on herself, the dead woman's head snapped up as she gaped at me. "Maru-chan caused her _kidney_ to burst. Another child would have compounded that."

I shrugged. "Well, A. Tsunade is the walking definition of a miracle worker, and B. Natsu was determined to have another kid, or two, anyway. She enjoys playing with swords too much to stop the whole act of getting herself knocked up, that probably contributed too…"

"...I have another grandchild?"

"I guess?" I replied confusedly. "I believe one or both of the Bears was made godfather."

"Fuck the Bears. Were awesome ANBU Generals… but mindfuck." Fiona laughed again, not quite able to hide the grin before it dropped suddenly. "Well _fuck_, and I don't even… I'm not going to be able to see either. Shit. Change the subject."

I shrugged. "Sure. Welcome to the insanity that is my life. This won't be last time I end up in an alternate dimension, want to see where we end up? One caveat if you start hanging out with me." I pointed at her faux-seriously. "No trying to seduce me, I don't care how long it's been, I have enough women to deal with."

"Child, I'm a _grandmother._" She snapped back, almost on automatic. "And you have a shard of my soul, idiot. You're not getting rid of me that easily. I can pop in and see you whenever things get too boring."

"... If you ever pop in when I'm having sex, I will make your life hell."

Fiona snorted at me, sipping some of her very cooled coffee. "_I'm_ the one that'll be _haunting_ you."

I drink from my own soda, shrugging. Setting it down, I start laughing as a thought occurred to me. "I just realized something!"

Glancing up, the ghost-woman cocked an eyebrow. "What?"

"Haha… I'm a Halloween child being semi-permanently haunted by a ghost!" I chuckled in reply, caught up in the hilarity of the situation.

Fiona reached down, picked up a fragment of a previously shattered gravestone, and chucked it at my head. "A _half-demonic_ ghost, thank you very much."

I stopped laughing as the rock hit my head and glared at her. "Ow! Why would you do that? Besides, even half-demon you still have a nice body-GODDAMNIT, why did you have to hit me in the head?!"

"The hell…?" Fiona peered at me suspiciously. "You realize I technically _don't_ have a body, right?"

"The illusion you use as a body is hot, fine, and damnit! I'm now very annoyed with you, dead-demon-hot lady." I took a swig from my bottle. "Is life in third person for you?"

She blinked, and suspiciously inspected her coffee. "The fuck is in this?"

I waved her off. "What you normally drink, I just have some weird condition that whenever I'm hit in the head my brain filter turns off, it's heavily abused by my female friends so I'll say blatantly flattering things to them without thinking, and they know it's honest because hey, no filter."

"So you have near-permanent brain damage?" She wondered aloud. "I wonder if that explains Gai-kun, then…"

"It doesn't take much, and I have two separate healing factors, and for the love of god, do NOT compare me to Gai, I'm nowhere near as bad, thank you very much."

"There is _nothing_ wrong with Gai-kun!" Fiona protested, then her face screwed up in confusion. "No wait, yes there was…? Erm… I would like to know what the hell now…"

I grumbled at her. "The Gai Natsumi taught actually had a sense of tact and moderation. He almost never used it, but he did. Since Kakashi is a _dick_ he decided to see how much weird shit Gai could tolerate for a challenge, so he ended up with that horrifying suit and haircut anyway. You're probably more remembering canon Gai, who.. I'll be honest, I swear he has head trauma. A lot of it."

She gave me a look. "He was a _taijutsu_ expert. Of _course_ he had head trauma. Heaped on top of the stress of constant training or combat likely missions? It's a wonder Konoha didn't _implode_ under the weight of supporting near five hundred jonin-track shinobi in peacetime, much less during the Third Great Shinobi War."

I blinked as I then remembered something, but I couldn't stop myself from speaking. "Which is probably why Natsu was so pissed when she accidentally ended up in canon…"

"...what."

"Not her fault. Minato was wondering about alternate dimensions, due to some weird-ass conversation, started poking the idea with fuinjutsu, and accidentally ended up merging realities during the chunin exam preliminaries." I blinked. "As an aside, jesus fuck, why is there so much black ink on Natsumi's file? Like… Why even have a file at that point?"

"...because any military runs off paper, and even if classified to hell there needs to be some kind of token to say she _is_ a jonin, that's why. And when did you see Natsumi's shinobi file? That's only for Hokage, Jonin Commander, or ANBU General's view only. As far as I know, anyways." She considered it for a long moment. "If it was blacked out at all, then probably her non-ANBU version."

"Inoichi was apparently looking at it, it was a summary of pretty much all the shit she ended up dealing with up to… I think after Mist was settled down?" I pondered aloud. "And, I'm sorry to say, but _fanfiction_. It's also why I know why you don't drink."

"Why I… oh, yeah. Natsumi told Minato that story." The dead woman rubbed a hand over her face, cracking her neck absently. "Shit… so… you know pretty much everything then?"

"Not everything. The author obviously didn't cover every little detail of Natsumi's life, and I am now forever thankful the author didn't write smut scenes, but I know quite a bit."

"I have the memories of what is literally my spiritual daughter and what she did to her husband using the knowledge of sex _I_ have." Fiona pointed out blandly. "And childbirth via blackout, a couple months of my grandson's first year from his mother's perspective. Try putting yourself in _my_ shoes. Boots, whatever."

"I meant thankful in that if I had read any smut scenes for Natsumi and Shikaku, this whole thing would be EVEN more awkward than it already is, not any disparaging of your own memories." I clarified, then drinking deeply from my soda.

"One word. _Breastfeeding._"

I finished drinking then shrugged as I put my soda down. "That didn't come up… I don't think. If it did, it was very rarely. I can see how it'd be confusing though, to have first person memories of breastfeeding from the perspective of a woman with bigger breasts and goddamnit, shutting up now." I went back to drinking my soda.

Fiona cupped her illusionary breasts for a moment. "She did, didn't she? At least my ass isn't as fat."

I chuckled, lowering my drink. "I remember, oh man, she was _so_ pissed over how curvy she was. Like, _so_ pissed. And the lack of height."

"And her Napoleon complex. Her poor genin." Fiona marveled, smothering a laugh into her coffee. "I _damn_ well approve of how Ibiki-kun handled that."

"Heh, you know, if somehow we ever do come across her again? You can totally lord over her that you have the body type she wanted back." I chuckled. "Oh man, she was pissed at her genin, her old self walking around with the body type she desperately misses?"

Snorting a bit harshly, the dead soldier set her empty cup to the side. "Might use the little midget as an armrest…"

I suddenly cackled as I remembered. "Oh, and one time Gai said that they weren't getting taller, she was getting shorter!"

The bark of laughter that escaped Fiona sounded painful. "Oh… he's my favorite. Definitely."

I chuckled. "I will admit, Gai that Natsu trained is far more tolerable. On the other hand, that was actually a part of a challenge between him and Kakashi. Gai's winning, as Kakashi hasn't called Natsumi old to her face yet."

She snickered. "Oh that little _shit_. Were they still doing that? I would've thought Natsumi… no, she never did interfere did she? Serves her right."

I sighed, calming down a bit. "So, feeling a little better Fiona?"

"No." The dead woman stated bluntly. "But then again, my life is someone's entertainment. It might be real to me, but someone scripted it. What kind of sicko does that?"

I shrugged. "The same type of person who makes anime, who writes stories. See, Fiona, I have a theory. End of the day, all of our lives, to someone else, is just another story. So far… I think it's fairly accurate. Way I see it though, oh fucking well, it's not them dictating our lives, it's them writing down what they see of our lives, more a transcribing of our history than actually acting as fate. Fate is a lie and bullshit, we have will, we choose as we please."

She gave me a fairly odd look. "I never bought into fate. But I think I like that theory. It's better than what I thought, anyways. And fuck it, I'm a dead demon lady. So what I say goes."

"See? You're doing better already with that mindset." I told her, pulling out another bottle from my jacket, this time a bottle of alcohol as I opened it. "Now all we need to do is get you laid by someone you won't kill and or maim afterward."

"I don't have a body, there's no involuntary impulses or pure chemical attraction to go along with. I literally _have_ no sex drive, and can only _recall_ an orgasm." Fiona bitched at me. "How the fuck am I supposed to get laid like this?"

"You're the living personification of mind over matter, we'll think of something. Last ditch effort, could probably bribe Stein to make you a flesh doll you could possess and inhabit."

She gave me a weirdly serious look. "If we end up in Bleach, I call one of Hat-and-Clogs' extra bodies."

I pointed at her seriously. "Boom, see, there you go! Progress! Could probably ask Yoruichi about how sex for spirits works too, god knows she'll tell us."

"Yeah… but _Stein?_ That was what you came up with in order to give me a physical form? I wouldn't touch that offer with a six-foot-pole."

"... On second thought, I have no idea what I was thinking. I would blame the booze, but I can't get drunk any more." I stared at the bottle in my hand before shrugging and drinking deeply from it.

"...Tsunade-sama would _kill_ for that ability. Maybe." Fiona looked pensive for a moment. "Why _did_ she drink so much? Even without losing Nawaki-kun and her lover? Shikaku didn't drink nearly as much as he did in canon…"

I pondered that for a moment. "Well, canonically, it was because she wanted to drown her sorrows, and then after that it was because paperwork hell. In Deja Vu there was no mention of her drinking… But if I had to guess, still paperwork hell and she just enjoyed sake? Plus fond memories of doing so with Jiraiya?"

"...did they ever get together?" She questioned seriously, picking herself and her empty coffee cup off the ground. "I mean, I _love_ Jiraiya-sensei, and that thing with Dan-san threw Natsumi for one hell of a loop."

I sighed. "Officially? No. It was heavily implied, however, and they were living together, partially for the sake of the kids, but I think also honest affection for one another."

Fiona clicked her tongue. "Tenzou-kun and Naomi-chan, I remember that. Poor kids."

I shrugged, climbing to my feet. "No one can save everyone Sergeant. We all just do what we can, and if you gave it your all, that's the best you can do. Life keeps going, the wheel keeps spinning, and we all just keep moving on."

"One, I'm _dead._" She pointed out dryly. "And two… are you really trying to give me a pep talk?"

"One, don't care, so's Sid, and you both keep trying anyway, so it still applies. Two, nope, just commenting. Now come on, we should probably go track down Spirit and Stein."

"...is it bad of me I'm not really tempted? I mean, yeah Stein's creepy and all… but… Spirit also grates against my nerves." She huffed sourly, crushing her coffee cup in one hand. "Pervert. The first thing he did when he saw me was cop a feel. And I was freshly woken up after dealing with _His Royal Furriness_."

I raised a hand. "A. Aren't you fairly perverted yourself? Like, to the point that Jiraiya was just a very poor excuse? And B. while true and I actually have little respect for the man in that field… He was also fairly drunk when I ditched him with Stein, and you do remember I gave Stein a vial of _mass-altering magic resource_, right?"

"First of all, there's a time and a place for perversion. To someone you don't know and are not sure about the capabilities of? I could've _murdered_ him that close to me. And secondly, Jiraiya-sensei was more than an excuse. He was a _damn_ fine sensei, we honestly learned a bit from watching him." Fiona mock sniffed in insult. "And third… yeah, I got nothing. While he's a great fighter and all… not really one I like much. Stein is... Probably going to get ahold of him later, you realize."

"Fair enough, true, a lot of respect for Jiraiya, and… while this is true, Spirit's current state of drunkenness is my fault. He challenged me to a drinking contest." I blinked, digged around in a pocket, and then handed Fiona a wallet. "Here you go. I have no use for the money he ended up betting all of. One of the nice ladies gave me the wallet to hold the winnings I got off him. And other guys that were there."

"I'd say something… no, wait. I'm saying it." She took the wallet with an evil smirk. "Good job."

"And now for the about face as I point out that while I can legally drink in the world I'm currently living in, I'm not 21."

"Orion… I have memories of _child soldiers._ If you're old enough to risk your neck, you're damn well old enough to drink. I wasn't a _cop._"

"... I'm uh, not actually officially trained to do this sort of thing. I work in a bookstore. As a clerk."

She gave me a pointedly amused look. "And you're doing what here again? Also again, not an MP. I really could care less. My MOS was forty-four echo."

I sported a confused look. "Uh…"

"...I was a _machinist._"

"Soooo, if I asked you to look over some weapon designs at some point…"

"I can read blueprints. And make things from them. And… well, I can weld. Fun point of fact, the machinist and welders basically shared a joint-sergeant slot. After E-4, we're required to know the other side of the military occupation specialty in order to advance in rank."

"... Ruby is going to love you to death when she finds out you can understand Crescent Rose's blueprints." I chuckled. "Crescent Rose being the customizable high-impact sniper rifle merged with a scythe she uses as a weapon."

Fiona's eyebrows raised up at that description. "...I would very much like to know how that's possible. The barrel in the staff? But… huh."

I chuckled again. "Yep, I think you're going to get along with the people I know just fine. Hell, maybe you'll make yourself a weapon! Pretty much everything in the RWBY world is also a gun. Hell, I've got a friend who uses lever-action shotgun nunchucks that can merge into a staff."

"Other than the fact I'm a dead demon woman walking?" She questioned me. "Because… there's that kid who can't stand the sight of Sid already… how does he feel about ghosts?"

"Apparently, it's only zombies. Coco kind of binge watched a fuckton of zombie movies… in the dark… at very high volume… So yeah. And eh, I'm friends with a guy with a monkey tail and a chick with legit rabbit ears, so long as you're not actively trying to harm humanity and/or faunus-kind, they really couldn't care less due to the genocidal monsters inhabiting a grand majority of the world!" I finished with cheer.

"Huh… while that normally would sound rather horrifying… for some reason I'm thinking 'vacation'." Fiona tilted her head to the side. "Were we doing something? Before we derailed on drinking ages, my military occupation specialty, and what your current world is like?"

"I could swear it was something important…" I trailed off. "Oh shit. Drunk Spirit with Stein in mad scientist mode. We should probably go… stop that. Now."

"I could teleport us…" Fiona offered, almost completely unconcerned. "I think Stein has my crystal still."

"... You know what, Stein wouldn't kill Spirit or otherwise maim him, it would make excellent bonding time for the two."

"Thought not. So… what's this Ruby like?"

* * *

"Good news everyone!" Shinigami-sama cheerfully announced to the people assembled in his office/alternate dimensional pocket of confusion that obeys his whims. "With the aid of Professor Stein, I have managed to open a mirror connection to the other world you folks come from!"

"For some odd reason, I'm recalling Professor Farnsworth from Futurama." Fiona muttered under her breath. "I'm bailing if we get an obviously suicidal delivery to do."

"Agreed. Though I'd like to think we're more competent and less killable than the Futurama cast." I murmured back to her, before raising my voice. "And, how exactly did you verify that it's the right world?"

"Oh… a bit of this, a bit of that… a few monster encounters later… I conversed with a nice young man called Ozpin. He claimed to be missing a team of Huntsmen-trainees. I believe that is you, yes?"

I tilted my head. "Young?"

Shinigami-sama bent down suddenly, his skull-mask nearly touching the floor. "Do you know how long I've been chained to this spot? Everyone is young to me, Mister Orion."

"Fair enough, Reaper Man." I admitted, shrugging. "So, Ozpin is on the other end of the mirror? Cool, can we talk with him?"

"Yes, yes, fairly simple. Simply come up to Mirror-san here, and I'll connect you." The Old One turned to gesture to the overly ornate mirror that was even bigger than his current form. "Might take a moment to reach him, crossing dimensions is fairly difficult even if you're only transmitting sound and sight."

"Just to clarify, how likely is it that you accidentally summon random monsters before connecting to Ozpin?" I raise a hand like a student, then glanced over my shoulder at Team CFVY, who were all glaring at me. "I'm sorry, I feel it's necessary to know if we have to fight for our lives. Again."

Shinigami-sama wiggled in place as he gave it some thought. "_Oh_… I'd say… a one in three chance of that happening. Ready? Here we go!"

Tapping in a sequence on the mirror's surface, the cloak the Death God wore suddenly shifted to show the back of a silver head over an office chair. Another few taps, apparently just to attract attention, then Shinigami-sama straightened up so he was positioned slightly offset and out of the way. "Headmaster Ozpin? If I may have a word… again?"

The Head of the Beacon Academy pushed himself around to face the window that normally wasn't an interdimensional view into a Death God's pocket of existence. "Shinigami-sama. I see Team CFVY are all accounted for, Professor Oobleck is present, and Mister Orion has not committed any grievous offence I need to apologize for."

"Ozpin! I demand hazard pay!" I spoke up half-jokingly, before pausing. "Wait, you have that little faith in me? And you're not even responsible for me, the only person who might be is Qrow!"

"I _sent_ you there. I do have a hand in you being there at all." He took a casual sip of coffee from the mug plucked from the desk behind him. "And I'll approve of hazard pay… depending on what Professor Oobleck reports."

_Fuck._ "Fine fine…" I turned to the assembled staff of DWMA. "Well, it was nice meeting you all. I apologize for the whole insulting you're zombiehood thing we first did when met, Sid. Spirit, you're game sucks, work on it. Stein… Go die."

"Ah… one moment." Shinigami-sama interjected cheerfully before anyone could respond to that. "There's this _one_ tiny thing I would like to ask of you all… well, Mister Orion more specifically."

I could _feel_ the confusion emanating from… _everyone_ with that statement. "Uh… I'll hear you out I guess Reaper Man?"

"Perfect! Well… you see… slightly embarrassing… but some of the creatures here can _eat_ other souls." Rummaging around in his cloak, the Old One pulled a battered hunk of soul-rock belonging to a dead woman in the room. "And then there's this."

"Kishin eggs, and demon weapons, and such, yes." I blinked at the soul-rock. "I feel as if this leads to something very important…"

"Fiona can't stay here. I honestly wouldn't mind if she could," Shinigami-sama continued in the same overly cheery tone, "I do so hate to give up my chess partner for late nights. But if I wasn't suppressing her soul's wavelength, any number of creatures would try to eat this for the demonic taint she still has. And I think a Kishin with some of a nine-tailed demon fox's power is something that we all can agree is bad, yes?"

"...wait, do I get a say in this?" Fiona demanded, turning first to Sid and then back to the personification of death itself. "I don't want to leave. So what if I'm confined to Death City?"

"It's not as if you wouldn't be able to come back, Sergeant Hanson. I'm fairly sure Sid could keep his spire of your soul intact for however long it lasts. However… I would rather be safer than sorry when it comes to this particular trouble of yours."

"Sooo… why me?" I piped up. "Cause, while I'm one of the only two adults traveling back to that world, I have proven to have some… minor issues."

The skull mask bobbed a bit in a nod. "Yes, yes… and she can help you with that if you go too far. Honestly, you are also the only one here that knows what happened to her besides me and Spirit, and if she can't stay here…? I would much rather ensure she goes with someone sympathetic than just professional, no offence Professor Oobleck."

The professor in question sipped from his thermos-_seriously, I just saw him use that as a weapon, how the hell does he drink from that-_. "No offense taken at all! Indeed, I feel this is the best outcome for all parties involved!"

"Ah… K, I can kinda of see that…" I agreed cautiously. "But uh, isn't this kind of up to Fiona? As she's a sentient being?"

"I'm also _dead_, and didn't choose to be so or here or anything." Said dead woman pointed out. "But as it's a security concern, I'll go where Shinigami-sama says to go."

"... at least half of that is you planning dope slapping me when you think you can get away with it, isn't it?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

"... And why, exactly, am I agreeing to this again?" I questioned the Old One.

"Why, because I asked nicely!" Shinigami-sama announced brightly. "And because I will be forced to shove this into someone's soul if not."

"Stein would volunteer for that in a heartbeat." I pointed out, ignoring the snickering from Team CFVY behind me.

"I meant I'd shove this into _your_ soul." Shinigami-sama corrected me, still cheerfully.

"... So I have to explain why I have a new roommate, to my _current_ roommates. Joy." I spoke flatly. Then I shrugged. "Eh, at least she and I get along. Mostly. I can probably bug Junior to give her a job."

"Excuse you-"

"And!" Sid interjected just as cheerfully as his ultimate boss. "She can guard your things, never eats or sleeps, and is only a call away!"

"...I'm not a _dog_, Sid."

I spoke up. "Yeah, she's totally not a dog." I considered it, then decided to keep rolling. "She's a cat."

Fiona shot me a blistering glare. "_Natsumi_ is the Leopard Summoner. Not me."

"... Well in that case you're a dog because you're related to the Hatake Clan." I pointed out, deciding to see how much I can annoy her with this topic.

"Dogs rule." She dismissed huffily. "And taicho's pack was _fantastic._"

"... Kakashi named his dog _Bull._"

"...well, it _was_ a bullhound."

A cough redirected attention to the man in the mirror. "Excuse me… but, what is going on?"

"I'm giving the soul of a partially demonic, dead soldier to young Mister Orion here." Shinigami-sama announced as one would read off their grocery list. "She's well trained, rated excellent on a firing range with a rifle, and is undead so she's likely to become bored enough to hunt some of your world's monsters just for something to do."

Fiona snorted harshly in the background. "_Woof._"

"To be fair, the army was pretty much the bitches of Congress by the time I ended up disappearing from my world…" I murmured to her under my breath.

"I _beg_ your pardon?" Said dead soldier asked icily. "I _died_ out there, for your information."

"I am well aware of this and respect you for this. Less so the government that ordered you out there. Also, pretty sure differing time periods. Things changed. Not for the better." I sighed. "I think we have more freedom _away_ from there then we did there, honestly."

"Dead woman." Fiona reminded me a bit pointlessly. "I have _all_ the freedom now. And… probably. Fuck, that's depressing."

"Well, to cheer you up, at least if you wanted to be transgender it's cheaper for you now?" I pointed out, half-seriously.

"If I wanted to be male I could be with less than a thought." She gestured to her entire body. "This isn't real."

"Exactly! So… wait do you even have a gender then?" I asked thoughtfully, thinking about it.

She gave me a long look. "...I am what Natsumi thought _Fiona_ was. The form, my memories, _everything_ about me is originally a Kurama clan bloodline ability twisted and given a soul. If I wanted, I could be anything or anyone. I have less substance than a _shadow clone…_ and we both know how Naruto-chan abused the _fuck_ out of that."

"I call bullshit, because she had the spiritual overlay pretty much at birth, unlike every other Kurama clan member." I argued, before spinning to face the mirror. "SO ANYWAY… How do we leave again?"

"Oh… but this is _fascinating!_ I haven't gotten her to admit her existence in so few words before…" Shinigami-sama wiggled in place again, then heaved an overly dramatic sigh. "But if you insist."

The Old One turned back to the mirror, which was showing a mildly interested Ozpin, and _reached_ a hand into the surface.

"Now then, while I'm holding the way open… step on through."

"... Does that hurt?" I asked curiously, stepping towards the mirror as I did so.

"It tingles." Shinigami-sama offered unhelpfully.

"Huh." I shrugged, then took the soul rock from his other hand. "Whelp, let's do this then. FORWARD UNTO THE BREACH!" With that cry I ran at the mirror, rock held above my head.

"_Plagiarism!_" Fiona called out loudly at my back.

* * *

"... Seriously? I'm here again? Didn't we do this before like… 3 chapters ago?"

"_Ow… my head._"

"See! It's not just me! Interdimensional travel sucks damnit!"

"_Fuck you, I _teleport_. The hell is going on? I was _talking to Sid_, damn it._"

**Eh, I'll send you back later. I'm getting my shits and giggles in. Sup?**

_**Not my idea. I swear. One really shouldn't exist on multiple planes of existence without warning or any idea it is about to happen.**_

… **I fail to see the problem.**

_**Fiona's probably going to have a splitting headache and a desire to murder things again. We were **_**trying** _**to get her **_**less** _**homicidal… right?**_

"So… I recognize one of you, who's the other one?"

_**...you may or may not know me as Vixen Tail.**_

"_Who?_"

"Dude, cool, the author of Deja… Vu… oh shit…"

"_YOU!_"

_**And now I'm very happy therapy is in progress for you. And not in your dimension. At all.**_

**So, amending that whole getting laid comment to pay you back for all the shit I put you through to you're both getting laid for all the shit we put you through. Not with each other, obviously.**

_**Wait… what? When did I agree to this?**_

"_Orion… exactly _where _are you?_"

"I… have no idea. Existence is kind of… fuzzy at the moment. I'm both here and talking in bold letters. Somehow. I think. My head hurts."

**Don't think about it too much. And when we had the whole discussion of getting her a gigai so she could get laid? It was implied.**

_**Is Bleach coming up next? I thought it was FFTactics. Or HP.**_

**I have no idea, I never decided where in the timeline any of this would happen, beyond FFTactics happening after Natsumi and Fiona meet again. Also, you're not remembering any of this, sucks to be you.**

"_No, wait. WHAT? I thought I was banned!_"

_**YOU are. Yes. **_

**Natsumi… Less so. And you know, the whole thing of Orion is dimensionally traveling and other dimensions are intersecting… it was going to happen. Didn't anyone mention this to you?**

_**I think we're confusing them for our own conversations. I know they're scarily like us in getting off topic all the damn time, but really Orion. They're not quite up to thinking on this level yet.**_

**Getting off topic and pretty much general relationship with one another in general.. My bad Vixy. So uh yeah. You're going to see Natsumi again. And Jiraiya. And probably Stag.**

_**Stag was always a given. He's very… intense.**_

"So, what, do we just not get a say in this or something? Cause, I just convinced her we have free will…"

**Eh, you do. We just… Actually, I think all we do is see just how much we can fuck up the multiverse and get away with it while writing down what we believe is the most likely outcome. That sound right Vixy?**

_**Given how we write this? Probably. And… Orion the smaller, you realize the only one that will recall anything about this conversation is Fiona, right? You're… not capable of thinking like this.**_

**Wait, how's Fiona remembering this again? I was just kind of spouting stuff because I figured she wouldn't remember…**

_**She's partially demonic. The limitations of physical form have no meaning to her, so her brain will recall some of this. Not all, she's not used to it. But we do it enough times…**_

**Whenever Orion finally unlocks his powers he might somewhat… anyway, here and now, we need to uh… remove the memories? Somehow? Vixy, you got a wand from HP laying around somewhere?**

_**Why? I didn't say anything that would make her want to murder me… although I don't think she need encouragement right now. And… also? I think we're off track again.**_

… **Just… Just give me Hermione's future wand please so I can obliviate the both of them.**

_**Fine. Work on setting them back on course then.**_

**Will do. So! Any last words before I remove this incident from ever happening in regards to your mental existence/s?**

"You're a dick." "_Fuck you both._"

… **As in, both of me, or me and Vixy? And you had to get it from somewhere.**

_**I plead the fifth.**_

"I don't care, you're still an asshole!"

"_Die in a fire._"

**K, so we're done here. Now how did that incantation go… one sec, I gotta go look it up…**

_**You literally said it a few pages ago.**_

"_...pages? YOU'RE WRITING THIS?_"

"... I think I hate God now. Or all variations thereof."

**Well, yeah? Entertainment? I'm going to go scroll up and check that… Gimme a sec… Oh here we go. Uh, so, minor chance this might wipe your mind completely clean a la Lockhart… but we can fix that so it's all good!**

"Wait, what?"

"_Seriously. Die horribly._"

**K, much love, buh-bye, **_**OBLIVIATE!**_

* * *

"-Gah! WHY. GODDAMNIT, THIS HURTS, AND WHY BLUE NOW, WHY NOT PURPLE AGAIN?!"

I felt someone poking me. "He's not physically injured Headmaster Ozpin. This happened last time too, he was complaining about his senses being all fuzzy when I woke him up."

"I… see." Ozpin's voice came from somewhere above and to the left of me. "I am sure he will be with us once he recovers. An explanation for _why_ I had a literal god of death knocking on my window, twice, please?"

Coco's voice drifted over me as I struggled to remember how to, ya know, move. "That disturbance you sent us to investigate with Professor-" A cough from nearby "-_Doctor_ Oobleck kind of ate us. And spat us out in another dimension where we fought a zombie with impressive grave-wielding skills first thing."

"_Zombie?!"_ Yatsuhashi's voice laced with, normally unusual but usual for the recent period of time, panic piped up.

"Calm yourself Mr. Daichi, there are no zombies in our world." I struggled to sit up, finally getting my senses in… somewhat normal order, as Oobleck spoke up. "And while the students and Mister Orion ended up in that situation, I ended up in Shinigami-sama's office."

"As Team CFVY is all present and accounted for, I take it that the 'grave-wielding'... _undead_ either proved no hardship or not actually an opponent?"

"Ow… Kind of both Oz. We did take him down, with the help of some locals, but then we found out after fighting the mad scientist that reincarnated him that he wasn't a real enemy." I spoke up, carefully staggering to my feet. "Fuck, I hate interdimensional travel."

Ozpin tapped his cane on the ground once, examining me from head to toe before extending a hand holding a spiky crystal soul stone. "How so?"

I carefully took the rock from him, judging it's weight in my hand. "The first part? Because it was apparently a really hardcore remedial class for the locals. The second part? Because I have extrasensory abilities that apparently heavily screw up the mind. Now then, I think I can get her attention this way…" So saying, with my last sentence I pulsed my Aura at the rock.

A flash of _blue-purple-red_ at my side, and Fiona whacked me upside the head. "...for the record, I don't know why…. But I'm annoyed with you."

I cringed slightly from the blow. "Ow, fuck! The hell Fiona, I didn't do anything to you!"

"Yes and no." Said dead woman replied stoutly. "I can't _recall_, but I _know._"

"Tch, stupid half-demon shenanigan bullshit…" I muttered under my breath, well-aware that she could hear me and not caring. "Anyway, Fiona? Meet Ozpin. Ozpin, meet Fiona. Yay."

"_Staff Sergeant_ Fiona Hanson. Formerly of the First Engineering Company, Five hundred Fifty Fifth Battalion." She eyed the silver-haired Headmaster of Beacon. "Deceased, unfortunately."

"I heard." Ozpin replied calmly, gripping his cane firmly. "And that you are partially demonic."

"Short of a long story, dealt with a demon via Death God and got compressed with it."

"Do you have any desire to eat anyone in this room?"

Fiona pulled a very disgusted expression at him. "Hell no."

"...very well. Continue, please. I would very much like to know why it took you all so long to return or get word back that you weren't in any immediate danger."

"I'm sorry, scrolls don't work too well _across dimensions_, you know that damnit!" I grumbled at the Headmaster. "Anyway… The only person with any sort of travel or communication over dimensions is Reaper Man, at least in that dimension, and it wasn't exactly… precise."

"_Technically,_ now that I'm here, that will no longer be an issue as long as both parties have a fragment of my soul." Fiona chipped in blandly. "I can cross dimensions as long as I know where I'm going. Apparently."

"Your soul is Multiverse GPS now?" I commented idly, throwing the rock into air and catching it a few times. "That's… Actually, that's kind of cool."

"I'm literally a self-homing beacon. Yes. It's how I do the hirashin at all."

"I thought that was because Minato hacked spacetime with seals?"

The dead woman shrugged. "It gives me a template. And after three months of nothing to do? I deconstructed it. Natsumi _was_ a seal master herself, she merely didn't do spacetime due to it being Minato-kun's and Kushina-chan's specialities. I know a shit ton of sealing scripts."

I pondered that. "I wonder if we can mix weapons engineering with sealing…"

"Hold." The Headmaster's cane came up to poke both me and Fiona in the chest. "Stop. Discuss on your own time. _Report now._"

I shifted back a little to be out of reach of the cane (_OF DOOM_) and returned my attention to the local variant of the Wizard of Oz. "Right. Yeah. So, It took time for Reaper Man to find… here, you? Generally. So, in the meantime, Team CFVY took classes at the school the god was headmaster of, Oobleck helped teach, and I… did a lot of stuff that I will tell you about later. Preferably with children not here."

An indignant "Hey!" came from the two more vocal members of Team CFVY, before Oobleck spoke up. "Indeed! I have their assignments here!"

Coco was aghast. "Why do you still have those? I thought you were kidding when you said you'd grade them!"

"Hey. _I_ assigned you those." Fiona interjected pointedly. "_I _knew you didn't come to Death City to learn to wield a demon weapon or become a meister. _I_ assigned you shit that would've been relevant _anywhere_. Are you saying you did less than your _best_ on work a teacher assigned you to do for your benefit?"

Fox's mutter of "Wouldn't be the first time…" was only heard by me, Velvet, and…

"_MISS ADEL._ I am going to give you _make up work._" The partially demonic woman informed the fashionista pleasantly. "And I'm going to _grade it_. To _shinobi_ standards."

"Sucks to be you Coco." I commented idly. "Shinobi standards are _harsh_."

Ozpin coughed pointedly. "Miss Adel, do please ensure your Team report is handed in on time as well. Please."

I could practically _hear_ the blood rushing away from Coco's face. "_Team…. Report…?"_

Professor Oobleck spoke up. "Why yes! It is expected of all Hunters and Huntresses to write a detailed report of anything they may encounter in the field, along with the measures taken to deal with the situations that may arise and opinions on anything they may have observed. This is especially true for mission leaders! I too shall be writing one to submit! It is quite easy, as long as you took proper notes during the entire experience."

I chuckled. "What, didn't you write anything down Coco? Hell, I even took notes. I'll be getting you my own report whenever I can consolidate everything into one thing, Ozpin." I remarked to the Headmaster who had briefly employed me. "Did you want the audio files in the report, or just as a separate thing in the folder?"

"I can write one, but I don't have anything digital on me, if you'd like an outsider's perspective." Fiona offered evilly. "I was a former military non-commissioned officer _and_ a shinobi elite jonin who led a team of less experienced ninja until they achieved a higher rank _and_ a leader of a black ops outfit for a surprisingly large military of shinobi."

Ozpin studied the dead woman thoughtfully. "...yes, I believe I would appreciate that, Sergeant Hanson."

Coco spoke up, almost yelling. "Why the hell did you all take notes the entire experience?! Specifically, WHAT THE HELL ORION! Audio files?"

I shrugged. "I get audio and video clips all the time of the random crap I encounter. Tends to be very useful after the fact. And Coco? I'm a bookstore clerk. Literally 80% of my job is paperwork. That, mixed with the extensive note-taking I do for my research in my spare time?"

"All militaries, mercenary outfits, governments, and even _schools_ all run on reports." Tacked on Fiona in a patiently lecturing tone. "How is anyone else supposed to know what you dealt with while on a patrol if they were sent out right after you got in? If they can't talk to you personally… they have to read a report of what they're getting into. The team leader is the _best_ person to write those."

"Ooook, so, we're just going to take Coco… and uh… Help her write that. Probably use the library. We'll just be going now if that's ok?" Fox spoke up and asked, moving to grab his team leader's shoulder. Said team leader was ghostly white and seemed to be mumbling under her breath in near-panic and depression.

Ozpin merely waited for the four of them to shut his office door behind them. "Now then. Do I need to send out Doctor Oobleck as well?"

I shrugged. "Nah, he's aware. So, hey, Ozpin, you remember how you accused me of being psychotic, oh, I don't know, about a month ago?"

"As I did it, I can recall the incident clearly, yes."

"So, yeah, hey, you were actually right it turns out. Unfortunately. I got worse over there. Then I got better. Oh, and my blood is black now. Kind of creepy." I idly rambled on, just stating things as if I was talking about the weather.

"...delightful." Ozpin stated flatly. "This _will_ be in your report, yes? I can certainly ensure parts of it are not widely distributed, but as this occurred _near my students_ I would like the full details."

"Huh, so that's why files get redacted…" I muttered under my breath, before raising my voice. "And yeah, it will be. Mostly. I was kind of out of it for a time period… Fiona or Oobleck can tell you what happened when I got worse better than I can, as an unbiased point of view. Slash, I can't remember a short time period when I got worse. Oh, and I wasn't near your students until I was better, so hey, at least there's that?"

"As I was assigned to be his minder when not teaching, I can confirm that." Fiona chipped in.

Ozpin nodded sharply. "I expect to see that in your report then as well. Is there anything _else_ I should know immediately?"

I pondered that. "Uhm… I can hit people with my soul? Kind of. I'll need to practice whatever the hell Stein was doing… And I can probably teach that? Would be useful, it tends to bypass armor and such and just ruin internal organs, and considering many Grimm tend to be highly resilient to damage…"

"Um… I'm sort of sure I might be able to teach a class on sealing?" Tacked on the dead woman. "Possibly. I'm going to experiment with Orion first, but it's possible wards, seals, and barriers might be do-able."

"And explosives… Wait, didn't seals use blood?" I commented. "Oh, and your students need more experience for fighting human opponents. You can see in their movements and general strategies that they are more used to fighting monsters than humans."

"Seals in the Naruto-verse required the energy, or more specifically _chakra_, in blood. Natsumi used blood in her seals, yes. However… I… _might_… have stolen a bit of the Dust you gave Stein… and experimented with that."

"Oh. Ok then. Cause I will admit, my first thought was my blood in a seal, and I see that ending very badly. For all involved. Uhm… I think that's it for immediate report Headmaster. Unless you needed us for something else?" I asked of the man who was signing my most recent paycheck.

"...I will approve or deny your hazard pay based on the reports I get." Ozpin informed me drolly. "So no, I require nothing else until I know more of what went on in immediate detail."

"Alright cool. In that case, I'm going home, introducing Fiona to my roommates, and probably going to get punched in the face by Yang. Or hugged. I think the latter is more likely, considering how long I was gone. Thankfully."

**AN: Welp, 23k+ words later, and we are out of Soul Eater! Finally. My bad. I didn't expect it to be this long of a trip… I blame Vixy.**

_**Nope, all your fault. I knew it would get this long, I've done a crossover with canon before in Pawprints.**_

**Point. Anywho, yeah, this is the longest chapter I have written for An Odd Turn so far… though not really, cause a good half was Vixy, so I more like wrote about… 11k? **_**Ish.**_ **So…**

_**...are you blaming me for how long it is, or how long it took? I'm confused.**_

**Nope, just giving you credit where it's due!**

_**That's the same thing as blame, just more positive.**_

**Eh. Anyway, key points! *totally not moving along quickly***

_**Fiona and Orion's discourses are actually fairly typical for the both of us. We get into some strange topics…**_

**Yeah, that. We bounce off each other really well. Which is why Vixy has an LoM fic planned… plus we both love that game. Like so much.**

_**I have no plans on posting it until I'm finished with both RR and one of the older fics I've been ignoring in favor of other things.**_

**Like this. And before y'all bitch at me for distracting her from RR… I'm not actually. She gets a lot done there even if I am bugging her constantly to cowrite Fiona's parts.**

_**Erm… I think we're off-topic again, but fun fact I once wrote three chapters of Deja vu in a week? That was thirty thousand words together. I write fast.**_

**Yeah… We actually do write a fuck-ton when we can coordinate and write together. Our PM log on is 100k+ words. We've talked to each other for about a year now. Anyway…**

**Chrona: … Yeah, I feel really sorry for purple dome. So rescued. And healing process started. And will probably be adopted by Marie. Or Natsumi, if that doesn't happen and she meets Chrona.**

_**I don't think so, Marie is pretty much the only support Chrona will feel safe with. Natsumi coming in late to the party would just make him/her/it even more confused and not-happy.**_

**So, Marie is going to end up adopting Chrona. Cause I'm not a total dick, and I have a heart. Also, for those wondering why we never specify Chrona's gender? Well… That's because there is no official gender. Medusa was **_**twisted**_**.**

_**Not sure why you paused, I've nothing good to say about that one.**_

**Mmm, anyway…**

**Orion's insanity: … I will freely admit, this was not planned, this was merely consequences of my actions.**

_**That looped a few times, and you had fun with.**_

… **I take inspiration from Old Man Henderson. Moving on. So, yeah, he got worse. Fairly. But because Marie has Madness healing powers, he got better. And Fiona got to play with a sword!**

_**...you're never letting that one go, are you?**_

**Did you expect me to? It was kind of adorable how she immediately proclaimed it awesome.**

_**It **_**is** _**awesome. Impractical as hell without Sephiroth's height, but still awesome.**_

**Eh… I think it's mitigated because it's wielded by the world's BIGGEST Momma's Boy…**

_**To be fair, he had a dick father. I'd be a momma's kid too with HOJO as the only other option.**_

**Stepfather, Vincent was a badass even though he never got to play father. Anyway, next part… That I'm going to go see what else deserves comment while Vixy replies to the Vincent thing…**

_**Sephiroth never connected Vincent with the idea of father, Hojo-hobo cornered that long before his bio-dad could peel himself out of a box. And also… a box. Was all that kept Vincent from going to his kid's rescue during his childhood. Seriously?**_

**TO BE FAIR… It was more-so the, ya know, 4 DIFFERENT DEMONS, ONE OF WHICH IS THE HERALD OF THE END TIMES, Hojo dickbag implanted in him at the same time. Because he shot him and then decided why the fuck not. Hate that asshole. Anyway.**

**Orion knowing Deja Vu: Before ya'll bitch… Vixy finished Deja Vu before I ever posted this, and a fair bit of Pawprints was also up. Deja Vu is one of my outright favorite fics, ever, and Vixy is just one of my favorite authors. Which is part of why I got uber excited she agreed to help writing with me for… well, honestly, this fic and the future of this fic. And that she lent me Fiona.**

_**...you know, Deja vu started because I only kept coming across SI stories that were a work in progress and never seemed to get beyond the childhood years? Just saying… frustration, yay…**_

**And then I asked her for advice… and then we discussed how Fiona never really got closure or any real resolution… And then this happened. Side note, I feel like Vixy is one of the top SI writers. … "This Bites" by Xomniac/Cross Brain is also high up there. **

_**Hmm… well, I know what I'm reading next.**_

**Yeah, I kind of point her at some of my favorite fanfics… and she ends up loving them also. Woot! INSPIRATIONAL. But yeah. Orion knows Deja Vu. Really well. And Pawprints, up to the shinobi file covered in black ink.**

_**...poor, poor Inoichi.**_

**I'm sorry, the guy named his daughter "pig", he had that coming.**

_**A lot of Oriental names translated to English sound weird. Natsumi is literally 'Summer Beauty'. **_

**That at least made sense! WHY WOULD YOU NAME YOUR BABY GIRL "PIG".**

_**...I have no idea. I just went with canon names, after all.**_

**And almost had the most one-sided fight ever in Pawprints when Natsumi met what's her name… were you ever tempted to have that fight happen?**

_**Yes, very much so. Seriously think about why some people did certain things in canon and you can draw a lot of really bad conclusions. Baselessly, but still…**_

**It's kind of depressing that the efforts of one person, regardless of how skilled they may be, fixed 90% OF CANON. Like… damn people. If all it took was that, why did you suck so hard? ***_**coughSasorideathbullshitcough***_

_**Because Kimi-troll is a dick.**_

**Agreed. Yeah, if you didn't realize, we don't like Kishimoto. Naruto was great in concept. HORRIBLE IN EXECUTION. This coming from the guy who has no plot and is essentially writing a realistic crack SI fic?**

_**I wrote a supposedly very good Naruto-fic, and I still think that. I wanted to read about a ninja kid named Naruto, not the second coming of DBZ's Goku.**_

***cough* As you can see, we agree on a lot too, aside from bouncing off each other. Anywho, last bit.**

**Fiona's continued presence in An Odd Turn: … I could say stuff, buuuuut… Fiona is Vixy's. And she has more planned for the whole thing with Fiona.**

_**Mostly due to end-canon bullshit, I'm kind of forced to in order to solve or even address the Rabbit Moon Goddess of 'WTF'.**_

**BEEYOTCH. Just… why? Fuck you Kishimoto. I don't care if it gives me an excuse to kidnap Fiona to my fic, fuck you and your general fuckery of storytelling.**

_**So… yeah. There's a method to the madness. Or Madness. Or just… one of us has a plan. Apparently the other is just taking advantage. Guess which is which.**_

**In my defense, I get inspiration for this fic every waking minute of my life. And most sleeping minutes.**

_**...how is that a defense?**_

**No clue. Anyway! I can't think of anything else to address... Vixy?**

_**It's four in the morning for me. I'm brain dead.**_

***checks time* Oh… my bad… so, yeah, that's a thing. I work evening shifts, so coordinating with poor Vixy is… difficult. I apologize profusely to her lots for it, we get a little carried away… anywho… I'm going to go reply to your peeps reviews from last chapter while Vixy says bye and then goes to collapse in her bed. Fuck it, no, I'll do that tomorrow- LATER this morning, it's 1am here for me.**

_**...eh, too tired to be witty. Night ya'll.**_

**Fun fact? Vixy can't spell when braindead. Thank god for spell check… and co-writing. Mostly spell check though. So…**

_**...says the one that has as many spelling errors as I do?**_

**Read! Review! And screw you Vixy, at least I spell sergeant right! How do you mess that up, it's your SI's rank!**

_**Because there's several different versions to spell it with, and they're all wrong if you look at them sideways. Sergeant, sargent, so on so forth.**_

***coughs* So… yes. READ! REVIEW! DO NOT MAKE FUN OF FIONA, SHE'LL HAUNT YOU!**

_**...do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars...**_


End file.
